Effect Of Glucocorticoid Treatment On The Levels Of Serum IL-18 And IL-33 In Asthmatic Patients

Objective: To investigate the role of IL-18 and IL-33 in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. To study the changes of IL-18 and IL-33 in asthmatic patients which treated by glucocorticoid during the acute exacerbation period. To investigate the effect of glucocorticoid on the levels of IL-18 and IL-33 in order to provide a guide for clinical diagnosis and treatment of bronchial asthma.Methods: The levels of IL-18, IL-33 and IgE were detected by the method of ELISA. 30 abacterial-infection patients'and 23 healthy people's data including absolute of white blood cells, neutrophil cells, eosinophil cells(WBC, N, EOS) were also collected meantime. After systemic glucocorticoid (methylprednisolone 40～80mg/d) 3-5 days treatment and combined with treatment of aerosol inhalation for 1-2 weeks, the levels of IL-18, IL-33, IgE and blood test in asthmatic patients were repeated. The changes of IL-18, IL-33, IgE and WBC,N,EOS levels in patients with asthma between acute exacerbation and relatively remission and the relationships among the above markers were analyzed by SPSS windows software.Results: 1.Compared with healthy controls, the levels of IL-18, IL-33, IgE and EOS in acute exacerbation asthmatic patients were significantly increased (P<0.05). What's more, there were positively related trends between each others among these markers (P<0.05). 2. After treatment with systemic glucocorticoid and local aerosol inhalation, the levels of IL-18, IL-33, IgE and EOS were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.05). 3.The levels of IL-18, IL-33, IgE had no statistical difference between healthy controls and relatively remission patients (P >0.05). But the levels of WBC, N, EOS were higher in relatively remission patients compared to healthy people (P<0.05). 4.There were correlations among the levels of IL-18, IL-33, IgE, EOS for the pretreated and posttreated, as well as the dose of glucocorticoid (P<0.05); whereas, there was no significant relations among the levels of WBC, N and the dose of glucocorticoid in asthmatic patients (P>0.05).Conclusions: 1.The results suggest that IL-18 and IL-33 participate in pathogenesis of asthma. The two cytokines have synergistic promote action. 2.Glucocorticoid can effectively restrain the productions of IL-18,IL-33, which improves the clinical manifestation obviously. 3.IL-18 and IL-33 can be used as the auxiliary parameter for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma.