Tolerance to the direct bronchodilator effects of β₂-agonists does not appear to occur in asthma. However, it is not known whether this is true for the nonbronchodilator effects of these agents, which protect the airways against bronchoconstrictive stimuli.

We investigated whether tolerance develops to the protective effect of inhaled terbutaline on airway responsiveness to the bronchoconstrictors methacholine (which acts directly on airway smooth muscle) and AMP (which acts indirectly by stimulating the release of mediators from mast cells) during sustained treatment with terbutaline. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, 12 patients with mild asthma each inhaled a single dose of terbutaline (500 μg) or placebo before a challenge with a series of doubling doses of inhaled methacholine or AMP, before and after treatment for seven days with 500 μg of terbutaline four times daily or placebo.

Before the seven days of treatment with terbutaline, a single dose of terbutaline reduced airway responsiveness to methacholine by 2.7 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.9 to 3.5), but it had an even greater protective effect against AMP, reducing airway responsiveness by 3.8 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 2.7 to 4.9; P<0.001). After seven days of treatment with terbutaline, the protective effect of terbutaline against methacholine decreased to 2.2 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.3 to 3.0; P = 0.04), and that against AMP decreased even more, to 1.7 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.4; P<0.001). By contrast, the bronchodilator response to terbutaline was unchanged during seven days of treatment with this agent.

We observed tolerance to the nonbronchodilator actions of the inhaled β₂-agonist terbutaline in patients with mild asthma, an effect that may be more pronounced in mast cells than in bronchial smooth muscle. This property of β-agonists may constitute a drawback to their regular use in patients with asthma. (N Engl J Med 1992;327:1204–8.)