ABSTRACT
Background: asthma is very common in children and its diagnosis is based on clinical manifestations, which can be misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases with similar signs and symptoms
Objective: to analyze the expression of ST2L and CD203c in the diagnosis of pediatric asthma
Methods: basophils were purified from whole blood samples of patients and healthy controls using Ficol-Paque gradient and Basophil Isolation Kit. RNA extraction was done by RNX-Plus solution and after synthesis of cDNA, the gene expression was analyzed by means of real time PCR
Results: patients expressed significantly higher levels of CD203c than healthy controls [p=0.01]. Although there was an increase in the transcription level of ST2L gene in patients, the results were not statistically significant compared to those obtained from the healthy controls [p>0.05]. A Specificity of 60% and a sensitivity of 73% were foundusing ROC curve for CD203c expression. Patients with positive family history of asthma exhibited more CD203c and ST2L expression [p<0.05]
Conclusion: it is proposed that determining CD203c expression by real time PCR may be an effective technique for diagnosis of pediatric asthma