The expression of an alternative spliced variant of human interleukin-4 in patients with atopic asthma / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expressions and effects of interleukin-4(IL-4) and its alternative spliced variant(IL-4?2) in patients with atopic asthma.Methods The expressions of IL-4 and IL-4?2 were detected in 10 cases of patients with atopic asthma using a quantitative nested reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) protocol.Result The expression level of IL-4 was higher in the patients with atopic asthma than that of the healthy controls.The median ratio of IL-4 to IL-4?2 was much higher in the patients with atopic asthma compared with that of the healthy controls.Conclusion The relative expression of IL-4 and IL-4?2 may play an important role in the mechanism of the pulmonary pathology in patients with atopic asthma,and may be one of the reason for the functional diversity of Th2 cells in different clinical conditions.