Huerta HRE, Ortega MJA, Durán C, Huerta LJG

Language: Spanish
References: 20
Page: 9-14
PDF size: 276.49 Kb.

ABSTRACT

More and more, there is evidence in world literature indicating that immunity gotten by means of cells has takes part in asthma pathogenesis. If this process really existed, we would expect the presence of activated T lymphocytes. The activation of T lymphocytes goes along with the expression of certain surface molecules that include the class II antigen of hystocompatibility (HLA-DR) and the interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R). These markers indicate the in vivo cellular activation. Since 1988 there are some research works in grown-up people suffering from severe asthma. These studies confirm the mentioned hypothesis and show that the presence of these activation markers is correlated with the severity of the clinical condition. In this study, the cases of 20 children with mild, moderated and severe asthma were studied. The children were measured their levels of T lymphocytes in peripheral blood and the presence or not of the already mentioned activation markers though flow cytometry. The flow cytometry results were compared with the ones obtained from a control group of children having no asthma and with the same age. The male-female ratio 2.3:1 and with relation to the ages, the pre-school group was the most numerous (50%). With regard to the asthma severity, 15% of the children had mild chronic asthma, 70% had moderated chronic asthma, and 15% severe chronic asthma. There was no significant difference among the values of T lymphocytes activation markers in the patients suffering from asthmatic mild or moderated crisis when compared with the values from the children of the same age in the control group. There was, however, a significant difference in the presence of those markers between the children with severe asthmatic crisis and those children from the same age in the control group. The children suffering from severe asthmatic crisis could be found in the group of severe chronic asthma (75%) and moderated chronic asthma (25%). Conclusions: According to these results we can assert that, in our group of study, we found a directly proportional correlation between asthma severity –and especially asthmatic crisis– and the presence of activation markers of lymphocytes T in peripheral blood. It is necessary to carry on more studies oriented in this sense in order to be able to understand a lot more the physiopathogeny of the asthmatic response and offer better therapeutical options for the patients.

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