STEROID-INDUCED CHANGES OF EOSINOPHILS IN ATOPIC-DERMATITIS

We investigated whether apoptosis of eosinophils is specific to atopic dermatitis (AD), or also occurs in other diseases with eosinophilia. We examined the survival of eosinophils cultured with corticosteroids: (I) Clinically, steroid administration significantly decreased high p eripheral blood eosinophil cell counts in patients with AD. (2) Treatm ent with recombinant human (rh) IL-5 prolonged the life span of eosino phils derived from patients with AD and of those derived from non-AD p atients with eosinophilia. However, there were differences in the surv ival rates in the presence of rhIL-5: the eosinophils from non-AD pati ents showed 1.4-fold higher survival rates than those from AD patients at 24 h. In the presence of steroids, the eosinophils from non-AD pat ients showed a survival rate double that of those from AD patients at 24 h. (3) In eosinophils from patients with AD, the survival rate decr eased significantly in a time-and steroid-concentration-dependent mann er. Steroid administration significantly inhibited the survival rate o f eosinophils from patients with AD compared to those of monocytes and neutrophils. These findings suggest that apoptosis induced by steroid s decreases the eosinophil count in vivo in patients with AD. There ma y be a difference in the incidence of steroid-induced apoptosis betwee n eosinophil cells from patients with AD and those from patients with eosinophilia due to other underlying diseases.