"The nose as immunocompetent organ"

Many words have been written about the nose as organ able to modify the physical and chemical characteristics of the air breathed in. Here we would like to focus on the immunological reactivity of the nasal mucosa, giving a particular prominence to the secretory specific defence system. The constant presence of IgA in the secretion, which moisten all the mucosal surfaces exposed to environmental noxae, joins structures whith specific functions such as intestinal, genitor-urinary and respiratory mucosa and allows them to constitute the system of mucosal defence. The histological integrity of the nasal mucosa is indispensable for an adequate production of secretory IgA so any case of chronic inflammatory processes accompanied by edema and increase in trasudation (specific vasomotory rhinopathy) or atrophic rhinopathy, charachterised by involutive alterations of the chorion and the glandular structures, is responsible for a reduction of this production.