Expression and Significance of Serum YKL-40 and Inflammatory Factors in Infants and Young Children with Wheezing

WANG Shuyu; ZHENG Yibo; YANG Lei; LI Shiyun; MA Xiaolin; LIU Fan; ZHANG Wei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-3429.2024.04.011

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of serum YKL-40 and airway inflamma-tory factors interleukin-5(IL-5)and interleukin-8(IL-8)in infants and young children with wheezing.Methods A total of 70 children with acute onset of wheezing(acute stage)admitted from June 2021 to May 2023 were selected,including 32 with the first onset of wheezing,and 38 with repeated wheezing.Of them,34 patients were in the recovery stage after treatment.In addition,22 healthy infants and young children undergoing physical examination during the same period were selected as healthy control group.Children with repeated wheezing were divided into positive group(n =23)and negative group(n =15)according to asthma predictive index(API).Serum YKL-40,IL-5 and IL-8 levels in the above groups were detected,and the correlation of YKL-40 with IL-5,IL-8,peripheral blood neutrophils and eosinophils was analyzed.Results The serum levels of YKL-40,IL-5 and IL-8 in children with asthma in acute stage were higher than those in patients with asthma in convalescent stage and healthy control group(P＜0.01).The serum levels of YKL-40 and IL-8 in the repeated wheezing group were higher than those in the first wheezing group(P＜0.01).There were no significant differences in serum YKL-40,IL-5 and IL-8 lev-els between API positive group and API negative group(P＞0.05).Serum YKL-40 was positively correlated with IL-8(r = 0.926,P＜0.001),but was not correlated with IL-5,absolute value of peripheral blood eosinophils and absolute value of neutrophils(P＞0.05).Conclusion Serum YKL-40,IL-5 and IL-8 may be involved in the process of acute airway inflam-mation in infants and young children with wheezing,and YKL-40 may be associated with neutrophil inflammation.The elevat-ed level of serum YKL-40 may be a risk factor of acute onset and recurrent wheezing,but it is not associated with the API.