[Tests for bronchial asthma].
One characteristic feature of bronchial asthma is an allergic inflammation of the airways involving eosinophil activation. Since adhesion molecules, cytokines, and chemokines play a critical role in eosinophil infiltration into the tissues, it is of paramount importance to utilize these inflammation-related factors as clinical parameters to assess the status of asthma. For this reason, we measured the level of RANTES and soluble ICAM-1 in patients with asthma. The concentration of plasma RANTES was significantly elevated in asthmatic patients as compared with normal subjects. Patients with asthma attacks exhibited higher RANTES levels than those in remission. sICAM-1 concentration was also higher in serum and sputum in patients with asthma than in healthy subjects. In order to detect eosinophil activation directly, we studied intracellular EG2 expression in eosinophils using whole-blood flow-cytometric analysis. The number of EG2-positive eosinophils was significantly greater in patients with attacks than in asymptomatic subjects. We measured the temperature of expiratory flow and temperature flux as an alternative approach to assess airway inflammation. This study was based on a concept that inflammation would produce heat resulting in the higher temperature. The coefficient of temperature flux was significantly greater in asthmatic patients than in normal controls. Therefore, these new tests may be useful for the evaluation and treatment of allergic inflammation in asthma.
Adachi
T
T
Department of Clinical and Laboratory Medicine, Akita University School of Medicine, Akita 010-8543.
Chihara
J
J
D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D001831:Body Temperature; D018946:Chemokine CCL5 / Q000097:blood; D047091:Eosinophil Granule Proteins; D004804:Eosinophils / Q000276:immunology; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000503:physiopathology; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000097:blood; D012260:Ribonucleases
D015415:Biomarkers; D001798:Blood Proteins; D018946:Chemokine CCL5; D047091:Eosinophil Granule Proteins; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1; D012260:Ribonucleases