COMPARISON OF PLATELET-ACTIVATING-FACTOR RECEPTOR MESSENGER-RNA LEVELS IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD EOSINOPHILS FROM NORMAL SUBJECTS AND ATOPIC ASTHMATIC-PATIENTS
S. Kishimoto et al., COMPARISON OF PLATELET-ACTIVATING-FACTOR RECEPTOR MESSENGER-RNA LEVELS IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD EOSINOPHILS FROM NORMAL SUBJECTS AND ATOPIC ASTHMATIC-PATIENTS, International archives of allergy and immunology, 114, 1997, pp. 60-63
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.