COMPARISON OF PLATELET-ACTIVATING-FACTOR RECEPTOR MESSENGER-RNA LEVELS IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD EOSINOPHILS FROM NORMAL SUBJECTS AND ATOPIC ASTHMATIC-PATIENTS

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) modulates the functions of eosinophil s, which play an important role in allergic inflammation, through a sp ecific receptor(s) expressed on the cell surface. We compared expressi on levels of mRNA for the PAF receptor (PAF-R) in peripheral blood eos inophils from atopic asthmatic patients with those from normal healthy subjects using a relative quantification method based on the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We found that the le vels of PAF-R mRNA in eosinophils from the patients were significantly higher than those in normal subjects. These results suggest that the increased expression of PAF-R in eosinophils may be relevant to the pa thogenesis of atopic asthma.