FEATURES OF IMMUNE RESPONSE AND BASOPHIL ACTIVATION IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC URTICARIA

Abstract

Some features of peripheral bood basophil activation were studied in children with different types of chronic urticaria, in order to specify the sustaining mechanisms of chronic urticaria. This study presents comparative data concerning spontaneous basophil activation, IgE level and Th2 helper cells. We observed forty-seven children with chronic urticaria, seventy children with exacerbated atopic dermatitis with different disease severity, fifteen healthy children without signs of allergy, or pseudo-allergy. High degree of the basophil activation was detected in children with exacerbation of atopic dermatitis (a comparison group), which was different from the groups of healthy children and patients with chronic urticaria. Spontaneous basophile activation was higher in children with chronic urticaria than in healthy children, as influenced by immune and non-immune pathogenetic factors of the disease. A positive pairwise correlation was shown between total IgE level, and Th2 helper cell numbers in peripheral blood in patients with chronic urticaria, thus confirming a Th2 immune shift. The results obtained contribute to our understanding of immune pathology in chronic urticaria.

Keywords

• chronic urticaria
• basophils
• ige
• cd203c
• type 2 t-helper cells