ABSTRACT
Bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airway in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The chronic inflammation causes an associated increase in airway hyper responsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing particularly at night or in the early morning. These episodes are usually associated with widespread but variable airway obstruction that is often reversible either spontaneously or with treatment.IL-17 family members belong to a distinct category of cytokines that coordinate local tissue inflammation by inducing the release of pro-inflammatory and neutrophil-mobilizing cytokines. The importance of the IL-17 family in inflammatory and autoimmune disease is becoming increasingly apparent. In this prospective study, we measured sputum IL-17 and serum sFAS in bronchial asthma patients of various disease severities by ELISA technique and also detected sputum eosinophils apoptotic ratio [AR].This study was carried out at Mansoura University Hospitals, Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Thoracic Medicine Departments from August 2007 to August 2009. Fifty bronchial asthma patients and twenty healthy non-smoker subjects were enrolled in the study after informed consent. Sputum IL 17 and serum sFas were measured using ELISA technique and eosinophils apoptotic ratio was detected by identification the morphological features of apoptosis after staining by Giemsa stain. The levels of sputum IL 17 and serum sFAS were increased in bronchial asthma patients especially in severe asthma than control group with statistically significant difference, there is decrease in eosinophils apoptotic ratio in bronchial asthma patients than healthy controls. Bronchial asthma patients have higher levels of sputum IL 17, serum sFAS and decreased eosinophil apoptotic ratio, higher levels of IL 17 were associated with severity of the disease, high levels of serum sFAS inhibit the process of apoptosis and are associated with decrease in eosinophils apoptotic ratio