The Clinical Significance Of Determining The Serum IL-25, IL-12 And Eotaxin Levels In Asthmatic Children

Objective: Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory tract diseases in childhood. Patients may show the symptoms as follows : recurrent gasping, dyspnoea, chest distress or coughing. Status asthmaticus may occur in more serious patients, even threat to their lives. It seriously effects asthmatic children's life quality and growth. The pathogenesy of asthma is multiple, heredity, respiratory infection, nerves and mind factor, environment, movement, drug and abnormal immune response are all concerned with asthma. Among them, the disequilibrium of Th1/Th2 are the critical factor. Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a received Th1 cytokine and IL-25 is a potent proinflammatory cytokine produced by Th2 cells. Eotaxin can selectively accumulate and activate eosinophils. To investigate the correlaitons and levels of IL-25, IL-12 and eotaxin with asthma and offer the theoretical evidence and experimental support for new therapia, we measured three laboratory signs of 55 asthmatic children and 25 health controls.Methods: We selected 55 asthmatic children who came to our hospital for diagnose and therapy as asthma group. Among them, there are 28 cases who during exacerbation and 27 case who in remission. The diagnosis of asthma was made according to the diagnostic criteria of: The prevention and cure rule of childhood asthma (trial) which revised by Respiration group of Paediatrics branch of Chinese Medical Association in 2003. At the same time, we random select 25 healthy children who were the same age to asthmatic children as control group. Exclusion criteria included a history of bacterial or viral infection and other severe diseases and hadn't treated with glucocorticostero- id and antibiotics in the near future (one month). The age and sex consitituent ratio had no obvious difference among there groups (P>0.05). The levels of IL-25, IL-12 and eotaxin in serum of asthmatic children and normal children was examined with sandwich ELISA methods. Compare the result with statistics software SPSS 13.0. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA, the linear regression and correlation. P-value < 0.05 were considered as significant.Results:1 The serum IL-25 level in children with asthma exacerbation was significantly higher than those in remission and normal children (P<0.05), (exacerbation group: 56.75±12.11pg/ml; remission group: 46.97±11.53 pg/ml; control group: 45.79±10.85 pg/ml). The IL-25 levels had no obvious difference between the remission group and control group (P>0.05).2 The serum IL-12 level in children with asthma exacerbation and those in remission was significantly reduced than normal children (P<0.05), (exacerbation group: 42.21±13.39 pg/ml; remission group: 37.29±16.91 pg/ml; control group: 57.15±14.97). The IL-12 levels had no obvious difference between the exacerbation group and remission group (P>0.05).3 The serum eotaxin level in children with asthma exacerbation was significantly higher than those in remission and normal children (P<0.05), (exacerbation group: 120.80±24.81 pg/ml; remission group: 105.58±23.22 pg/ml ;control group: 105.00±19.22 pg/ml). The eotaxin levels had no obvious difference between the remission group and control group (P>0.05).4 The serum IL-25 level was negatively correlated with the serum IL-12 level in children with asthma exacerbation (r=-0.130, P<0.01). The linear regression equation was: Y=61.702-0.12X .5 The serum IL-25 level was positively correlated with the serum eotaxin level in children with asthma (r=0.638, P<0.01). The linear regression equation was: Y=15.223+0.324X.Conclusions:1 The serum IL-25 level in children with asthma exacerbation elevated and reduced in remission. So IL-25 may involves in asthma pathogenesy and have the function of promoting inflammation development. 2 The serum IL-25 level elevated and The serum IL-12 level reduced in children with asthma exacerbation. There was a negatively correlation between the concentration of IL-25 and IL-12. The results indicate that imbalance of Th1/Th2 subsets with inhibition of Th1 and predominance of Th2 exist in asthmatic subjects.3 The serum eotaxin level was positively correlated with serum IL-25 level in children with asthma. It is concluded that the cooperation of Th2 cytokines and eotaxin to eosinophils perhaps is the key step in the pathogenesis of asthma.4 It was contrary to the previous reports which has descend tendency in the serum IL-12 level in remission asthma. The response may be associated with treated withβ2-agonists in asthmatic children.