Clinical Implication of Sputum CXCL13 in Children with Asthma / 소아알레르기및호흡기학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: CXCL13 is known to be a chemokine delivering B cell to the secondary lymphatic follicles, such as spleen, lymph nodes, and Peyer's patches. Recently, there have been some reports that CXCL13 is important for T cell inflammation and expressed by Th17 cell which produces IL-17. This study attempted to examine the clinical implication of CXCL13 in children with asthma. METHODS: This study included a total of 160 children aged 6 to 15 years who visited Severance Children's Hospital. There were 80 children with asthma and 80 children without. The pulmonary function test and the methacholine challenge test were performed. Total eosinophil count, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and total IgE in serum and eosinophils, ECP and CXCL13 in sputum were measured. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 8.3+/-2.3 years for the asthma group and 9.3+/-2.5 years for the control group. The male to female ratio was 67.5% and 55.0% respectively. The sputum CXCL13 level for the asthma group was significantly higher than that level for the control group (P=0.003). This significance persisted even after adjustment for age and sex (P=0.010). The sputum CXCL13 level showed a positive correlation with that of sputum eosinophils (r=0.190, P=0.017) and ECP (r=0.285, P=0.002). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that CXCL13 may play an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma related to eosinophilic inflammation. Further studies on sputum CXCL13 could help to reveal the role of chemokines in asthma.