Soluble interleukin-2 receptor and interleukin-4 in sera of asthmatic children before and after a prednisolone course

Background: Cytokine-mediated interactions among inflammatory cells may pla y a role in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. Objective: To understand the role of soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) in the disease activity of acute asthma, changes in serum concentrations of sIL-2R and IL-4 elaborated by activated T-lymph ocyte before and after prednisolone therapy with clinical improvement were determined in the present study. Methods: Circulating levels of sIL-2R and IL-4 in sera from 15 normal contr ol subjects and in sera from 20 allergic asthmatic children with acute exac erbation and in a stable condition were determined by using commercially av ailable ELISA kits. Results: The mean concentration of serum sIL-2R was significantly higher in acute exacerbation than in children with stable asthma (368.9 +/- 395.4 pg /mL vs 291.2 +/- 361.0 pg/mL; P < .01) or in control subjects (124.6 +/- 17 .8 pg/mL; P < .001). The mean concentration of serum IL-4 was higher in acu te exacerbation (5.82 +/- 1.10 pg/mL) and in stable asthmatic patients (6.7 3 +/- 2.83 pg/mL) versus control group subjects (5.54 +/- 1.20 pg/mL). Howe ver, the difference was not statistically significant among the three study groups. Conclusions: This study provides further evidence that changes in serum IL- 2R may serve as an objective indicator for clinical outcome of allergic ast hmatic patients.