Dexamethasone inhibits apoptosis of eosinophils isolated from hypereosinophilic patients.
Glucocorticoids reduce in vivo the number of eosinophils and are effective in treatment of blood and tissue hypereosinophilia. Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid known to induce in vitro apoptosis of eosinophils of healthy donors, and apoptosis may be a mechanism induced by glucocorticoids to reduce eosinophilia. Here we confirm that dexamethasone exerts a pro-apoptotic effect on eosinophils isolated from healthy subjects but that dexamethasone is not always a pro-apoptotic agent towards eosinophils from hypereosinophilic patients. Implications of these results in the resistance of some patients to a treatment by glucocorticoids are discussed.
Debierre-Grockiego
F
F
Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Amiens, France. debierre@mailer.uni-marburg.de
Leduc
I
I
Prin
L
L
Gouilleux-Gruart
V
V
D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017209:Apoptosis; D002469:Cell Separation; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004804:Eosinophils / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D017681:Hypereosinophilic Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology
D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D003907:Dexamethasone