Bronchial asthma is a chronic
airway inflammation disorder involving
lymphocyte activation and various
cytokines secretion by
lymphocyte. The inflammatory response results from a complex network of interactions between inflammatory
cells (
mast cells,
eosinophils,
macrophages) and resident
cells belonging to the
lung structure itself like EC,
fibroblasts, or bronchial
epithelial cells.
IL-6 which is known to up-regulate the
endothelial cell expression of adhesion molecules participating in the development of the inflammatory reaction in
bronchial asthma is produced by
alveolar macrophage.
ICAM-1 is produced by bronchial
epithelial cell and expression by
endothelial cell, which is known to enhance of the influx of various
cells.
RANTES which is known to a potent
chemoattractant for
eosinophils,
lymphocytes, and
monocytes, a member of the
CC chemokine family, is expressed by bronchial
epithelial cell. To evaluate whether markers of
lymphocyte activation are useful markers of
disease activity in
bronchial asthma, we measured sIL-6, sICAM-1, sRANTES in 42
patients with mild to moderate
bronchial asthma and in 26 normal controls and compared the result with other
disease activity markers in
asthma (pulmonary function,
blood eosinophil counts). The mean level of sIL-6 was higher than that of normal control and correlated significantly with sICAM-1, FEV1% to predicted value. The mean level of sICAM-1 was higher than that of normal control and correlated significantly with FEV1%, FEV1% to predicted value. The mean level of sRANTES showed the tendency to be higher than that of normal control, but not significant statistically, and did not correlated with sIL-6, sICAM-1, FEV1%, FEV1% to predicted value,
blood eosinophil counts. It appeared that sIL-6 and sICAM-1 could be a
disease marker in
bronchial asthma. But, clinical application of the measurement of these markers
needs to be studied further.