ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the plasma levels of regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), eotaxin, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) in patients with chronic urticaria and their roles in the pathogenesis of chronic urticaria. Methods Forty-one patients with chronic urticaria were included into this study along with 20 normal human controls. Patients were graded into three groups, I.e. Mild group (n = 11), moderate group (n = 21) and severe group (n = 9), according to their symptom score. All patients were treated with mizolastine 10 mg per day for 4 weeks. ELISA was used to study the plasma levels of RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 in normal controls and patients before and after treatment. Results The plasma levels of RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 were (52.5 ± 10.2) g/L, (58.4 ± 16.1) g/L, (35.1 ± 9.6) ng/L and (109.4 ± 21.7) ng/L, respectively, in untreatedpatients with chronic urticaria, compared to (33.7 ± 9.4) g/L, (48.3 ± 13.6) g/L, (21.3 ± 8.9) ng/L and(77.8 ± 11.6) ng/L, respectively, in normal controls(P < 0.01, 0.05, 0.01, 0.01, respectively). Increased plasmalevels of RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 were observed in patients with moderate or severe chronic urticaria compared with those with mild chronic urticaria (both P < 0.05), whereas there was no significant difference between patients with severe and mild chronic urticaria (P < 0.05). After treatment with mizolas-fine the plasma levels ofRANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 were (36.3 ± 8.9) g/L, (46.3 ± 10.2) g/L, (23.2 ± 7.5) ng/L and (83.1 ± 14.2) ng/L respectively, significantly lower than those in patients before treatment (all P < 0.01), but showed no difference from those in normal controls (all P > 0.05). Conclu-sions The plasma levels of RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 are elevated in patients with chronic urticaria, and they exhibits a positive correlation tendency with disease activity. After treatment with mizolastine, a significant decrease is observed in the plasma levels of RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4, which hints that RANTES, eotaxin, TNF-α and LTB4 may play a certain role in the pathogenesis of chronic urticaria.