Serum Levels of Eosinophil Cationic Protein and IL-5 in Patients with Asthma without Systemic Corticosteroids

Abstract

We measured the serum levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and interleukin-5 (IL-5) in 39 patients with asthma (symptomatic 12, asymtomatic 27) without systemic corticosteroids and 49 healthy subjects. There were significant differences in serum levels in both ECP and IL-5 between symptomatic and asymptomatic asthma, and healthy subjects. A significant positive correlation was found between serum levels of ECP and IL-5. No significant correlation was found between %FEV₁ and serum level of ECP or IL-5, however, when the analysis was restricted to patients of less than 60 years of age, the correlations were significant. These results suggest that IL-5 is one of the factors that activate eosinophils even in peripheral blood, and that measurement of serum levels of ECP and IL-5 is useful for in vitro monitoring of asthma.

The Effects of Intranasal Budesonide on Allergen-induced Production of Interleukin-5 and Eotaxin, Airways, Blood, and Bone Marrow Eosinophilia, and Eosinophil Progenitor Expansion in Sensitized Mice

“…Budesonide was given by intranasal administration (25 l each time) on Days 17,18,19, and 20 ( Figure 1). On Days 19 and 20, budesonide was given 1 h before intranasal OVA challenge.…”

“…There is now evidence to suggest that IL-5 plays a prominent role in eosinophil recruitment, and a unique role in terminal differentiation and maturation of eosinophil lineage-committed progenitors (15,16). Clinically, it has been demonstrated that there are significant correlations between T cell activation, increased concentration of IL-5 in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF), and asthma severity (17)(18)(19). IL-5 has thus been considered as a potentially important eosinopoietic signal between lung and bone marrow in asthma (4,5).…”

“…Corticosteroid treatment reduces airway and circulating eosinophilia and IL-5 levels in patients with asthma (18,27,28), and attenuates allergen-induced increases in blood and airway eosinophils (29). We have previously provided evidence that treatment with inhaled budesonide did not prevent allergen-induced increases in bone marrow eosinophil/basophil progenitors (EoB-CFU), but did prevent allergen-induced increases in blood and airway eosinophils in asthmatic subjects as well as reduce baseline EoB-CFU (10).…”

Effect of oral glucocorticoid treatment on serum inflammatory markers in acute asthma

“…Other groups have shown elevated concentrations of the soluble form of CD25 (sCD25), released by activated T cells,11 12 and ECP13 in the serum of asthmatic adults and children compared with controls. Some of these studies have suggested a correlation between the concentrations of these products and disease severity, highlighting the possible role of these markers as simple objective measures to monitor disease activity and response to treatment.…”

Measurement of Feline Serum Interleukin-5 Level

“…It also increases the migration of eosinophils to local lesions [15,21], maintains the survival of mature eosinophils by inhibiting apoptosis [21,22], and directly induces eosinophil degranulation and superoxide production [4,5] in humans. It is reported that serum IL-5 levels are significantly higher in human patients with asthma, and a significant positive correlation was found between the serum concentration of IL-5 and that of eosinophil cationic protein [9]. Administration of an anti-IL-5 antibody blocked eosinophilia more effectively than anti-IL-3 or anti-GM-CSF antibody in a mouse model of allergy [17].…”