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Looking for noninvasive ways to evaluate pulmonary disease, researchers used electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to analyze proteins in human exhaled breath condensate (EBC). EBC is obtained by collecting condensed liquid from exhaled breath.
Surprisingly, when the researchers analyzed the EBC of six healthy, nonsmoking volunteers who inhaled ambient air, they found large amounts of keratins (K1, K2, and K10) derived from human stratum corneum. K1, K2, and K10 are not found in normal lung tissue. When the volunteers breathed in compressed air from the hospital system, the samples did not contain keratins. The condensates did not contain α-amylase or lysozyme, showing that they were not contaminated with…