Allergology International (Jan 1997)

Heterogeneous chemotactic response of eosinophils in patients with bronchial asthma: Its association with disease severity

  • Takayuki Ohnishi,
  • Hiroki Okada,
  • Misato Terai,
  • Jiro Takahara,
  • Mitsuomi Hiroshima

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2332/allergolint.46.227
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 46, no. 4
pp. 227 – 235

Abstract

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We examined the chemotactic response of eosinophils to five eosinophil chemotactic factors (ECF; ECF-PI5, −PI6, −PI7, −PI8 and -PI9) from an established T cell line (ST02) in 31 patients with bronchial asthma (BA). The asthmatic patients were divided into three groups according to the ratio of the chemotactic response to ECF-PI5 and -PI9 (PI5/PI9). A type 1 response occurred when eosinophils responded to both ECF-PI5 and to ECF-PI9, a type 2 response occurred when eosinophils responded to ECF-PI5 only and a type 3 response occurred when eosinophils responded to ECF-PI9 only. Of 31 asthmatic patients, 21 exhibited a type 2 response, six exhibited a type 1 response and the remainder exhibited a type 3 response. In contrast, 23 of 25 healthy donors exhibited a type 1 response and none of them exhibited a type 2 response. This typing of asthmatic patients was apparently correlated with the clinical symptoms of the patients. All patients exhibiting a type 1 response were diagnosed with mild and episodic asthma and none of them had taken oral prednisolone. In contrast, many patients exhibiting a type 2 response were diagnosed with moderate, persistent and perennial asthma. Indeed, eight of these 21 patients had taken oral prednisolone. The patients exhibiting a type 3 response were diagnosed with mild to moderate and episodic asthma, but none of them had taken oral prednisolone. Furthermore, according to the total percentage migration to five ST02-derived ECF, asthmatic patients were further divided into two groups: high- and low-responding groups. Sixteen of 21 patients exhibiting a type 2 response belonged to the high-responding group, whereas all patients exhibiting a type 1 or type 3 response belonged to low-responding group. The present results indicate that such chemotactic heterogeneity of eosinophils to ST02-derived ECF is closely associated with the severity of BA, particularly with regard to the necessity of steroid therapy.

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