DECREASED PERIPHERAL-BLOOD GAMMA-DELTA T-CELLS IN PATIENTS WITH BRONCHIAL-ASTHMA

Many cell populations are thought to be involved in the etiopathogenes is of bronchial asthma. We examined by flow cytometry the relative and absolute number of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), alpha beta TcR+ or gamma d elta TcR+ T cells, CD19(+) B cells; and CD56(+) natural killer (NK) ce lls in the peripheral brood of 26 adult patients with difficult-to-con trol asthma (DCA) and 22 patients with minimally symptomatic asthma (M SA). Statistically higher relative and absolute numbers of NK cells (1 8.39 +/- 10.67% and 0.38 +/- 0.17 x 10(9)/l) in comparison with health y controls (11.77 +/- 8.06% and 0.25 +/- 0.19 x 10(9)/l) and significa ntly decreased relative and absolute numbers of gamma delta T cells (3 .02 +/- 2.16% and 0.06 +/- 0.04 x 10(9)/l) in comparison with controls (5.65 +/- 2.90% and 0.13 +/- 0.08 x 10(9)/l) in the DCA patient group were found. After pooling of data from both MSA and DCA patients and dividing the patients according to the presence of allergy, the relati ve and absolute numbers of gamma delta T cells were found to be dimini shed in both the allergy (3.77 +/- 2.98 and 0.07 +/- 0.05 x 10(9)/l) a nd nonallergy (3.06 +/- 1.78% and 0.06 +/- 0.03 x 10(9)/l) groups in c omparison with healthy controls. The reason for the low number of gamm a delta T cells in the peripheral blood of patients suffering from bro nchial asthma is under investigation.