Acute asthma in children: Relationships among CD14 and CC16 genotypes, plasma levels, and severity.

Rationale: The majority of previous studies investigating asthma genetics have focused on cohorts with stable disease and have not defined mechanisms important during acute asthma. CD14 and CC16 each play a key role in biologically important inflammatory pathways and the gene of each has a functional promoter-region polymorphism.

Objectives: This study was designed to determine the influence of these polymorphisms on plasma levels of their products and clinical disease during acute asthma.