THYMOPOIESIS INTENSITY IN PATIENTS WITH BRONCHIAL ASTHMA, DEPENDING ON DURATION OF THE DISEASE

Abstract

Abstract. Functional activity of thymus in normal donors and patients with various clinical forms of bronchial asthma was evaluated by means of assessing TREC-positive T-cell numbers. In spite of well-known alterations in parameters of T-cell homeostasis, TREC levels in CD4+and CD8+ lymphocytes from the patients with asthma did not differ significantly from those in donors. There were also no significant differences in TREC-containing cell numbers, dependent on clinical types of bronchial asthma and IgE levels. However, the patients with a recent disease onset (duration of several days to one year) showed increased TREC positivity in CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, as compared with donors and those patients who underwent basal therapy with glucocorticoids, and during long-term disorder (> 1 year). Enhanced thymopoiesis at initial stages of the disease may be associated with thymic stromal lymphopoietin which contributes to development of bronchial asthma, and normally participates in the process of T cell production.

Keywords

• thymopoiesis
• trec
• t lymphocytes
• bronchial asthma