Expression changes and clinical significance of interleukin-27 in adult patients with acute exacerbation of asthma

HE Shaojun; CHEN Yifei; YANG Jiong

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2018.21.002

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression changes and clinical significance of interlukin-27 (IL-27)in the peripheral blood of adult patients with acute exacerbation of asthma. Methods Twenty adult patients with acute exacerba-tion of asthma were collected as the asthmatic group,while 12 healthy controls from medical examination center were select-ed as the control group. Heparinized venous blood was collected from the two groups,and then peripheral blood mononucle-ar cells (PBMCs)were separated from the blood. The proportion of IL-27 + dendritic cells (DCs)was evaluated by flow cytometry. The mRNA expression levels of IL-27 subunits (p28,EBI3),Th1 and Th2 specific transcription factors (T-bet,GATA3)in the PBMCs were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). The levels of serum IL-27,Th1 specif-ic cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ),Th2 specific cytokine interleukin 4 (IL-4),and the correlations between them were examined by ELISA. Results Asthmatic patients showed down-regulated proportion of IL-27 + DCs as compared with the controls (P < 0. 05). Compared with the control group,the mRNA expression levels of p28,EBI3,T-bet,and the magnitude of T-bet expression versus GATA3 (T-bet/ GATA3)decreased in the asthmatic group (all P < 0. 05),while GATA3 mRNA expression was not statistically different between the two groups (P > 0. 05). Compared with the control group,the levels of serum IL-27 and IFN-γ significantly decreased,while the IL-4 level increased in the asthmatic group (all P < 0. 05). Moreover,in the asthmatic group,the level of serum IL-27 was positively correlated with IFN-γ (r =0. 693,P < 0. 001),but was not related with IL-4 (r = 0. 259,P > 0. 05). Conclusion The IL-27 is low expressed in the peripheral blood of adult patients with acute exacerbation of asthma,which suggests that IL-27 could contribute to the pathogenesis of asthma by regulating Th1 cells.