Intracellular expression and serum levels of eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) and eosinophil cationic protein in asthmatic children.

Background: Eosinophils are involved in the chronic inflammatory response in asthma and their basic proteins are thought to play a major pathophysiological role in this process. While serum levels of basic proteins have been used to monitor the ongoing allergic disease, little is known about the intracellular expression of these proteins in clinical situations.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the intracellular expression of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) in asthmatic children and control subjects and relate it to serum levels of both proteins, lung function tests and immunoglobulin (Ig)E levels.

Frequencies of T cells expressing interleukin-4 and interleukin-5 in atopic asthmatic children. Comparison with atopic asthmatic adults.

T-cell-derived cytokines have been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma and it has been suggested that Th2-type cytokines (interleukin-4 [IL-4], interleukin-5 [IL-5]) are pivotal in the allergic inflammation. However, there are little data on human cytokine production by individual T cells at the protein level, in particular in asthmatic children. In this study we analyzed the cytokine production at the single cell level in peripheral blood from mild atopic asthmatic (AA) children and adults and age-matched atopic nonasthmatic (AN) and nonatopic nonasthmatic (NN) control subjects (n = 9 in each group) using the technique of intracellular cytokine detection by flow cytometry.