Eotaxin 2 in sputum cell culture to evaluate asthma inflammation

¹ Dept of Medicine, University of S. Paulo Medical School at Ribeirão Preto
² Dept of Biochemistry and Immunology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais
³ Dept of Pharmacology, University of S. Paulo Medical School at Ribeirão Preto.
⁴ Dept of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: evianna{at}uol.com.br.

	Abstract

We aimed to elucidate whether culture of cells recovered from induced sputum may represent a suitable model to evaluate cytokines and chemokines production by airways inflammatory cells.

Sputum induction was performed in 21 normal subjects and 30 asthmatic patients: 21 were taking inhaled corticosteroid and 9 were steroid-naive asthmatics evaluated before and after 14-day treatment with oral prednisone (40 mg·day^-1). The supernatant of lysed and centrifuged sputum and the supernatant of sputum cell culture were analysed. TNF-, IL-8 (CXCL8), IL-1, IL-13, and eotaxin 2 (CCL24) concentrations were determined by specific ELISA.

Eotaxin 2 production by cell culture was higher in the asthma group (131±108 pg·ml^-1) than in the control group (36±41 pg·ml^-1) and treatment with oral corticosteroid abolished this difference. In addition, reduction of eotaxin 2 levels by corticosteroid treatment was greater in cell culture (81.3% reduction) than in sputum (26.4%) (p<0.05). There was correlation (r=0.74; p=0.04) between the decrease in eotaxin 2 production and the decrease in blood eosinophil number and between eotaxin 2 and eosinophils in sputum (r=0.56; p=0.01).

Eotaxin 2 may play an important role in asthma and response to corticosteroid treatment suggests that analysis of sputum cell culture is relevant as an inflammatory parameter.

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