DU Chun-ling1,2, XU Kan3, MIN Zhi-hui4, SU Xiao-qiong1, DONG Nian1, BAI Feng-xi1,CHEN Zhi-hong1△
Objective To detect cytokines in serum for chronic asthma and acute exacerbation by cytometric beads array method (CBA), and to analyze characteristics of cytokine subgroup and their relation to clinical data.Methods Fourty chronic asthma,22 acute exacerbation of asthma and 18 healthy subjects were included.A little amount of blood was drawn from each subject (2 mL) and used for measuring cytokines by CBA to analyze their characteristics and correlation with clinical data.Regular blood test,C reaction protein and procalcitonin were measured by full automatic blood cell and biochemical analyzer.Results CBA kit of cytokine panels were custom-made,which included IL-5,IL-6,IL-10,IL-13,IL-17,TNF-α and IFN-γ.No differences were found in cytokine levels in chronic asthma when compared with healthy subjects.However, in acute exacerbation phase,there were 5 cytokine subgroups which were high IL-6 (22.8%),high IL-6/TNF-α(13.6%),high IL-5 (31.8%),high IL-17(13.6%) and normal cytokine (18.2%).The levels of IL-6 and TNF-α increased 6.28-12 folds and 17.3 folds respectively compared with healthy subiects. High IL-6 and High IL-6/TNF-α were positively correlated with WBC and CRP (R2=0.63,R2=0.67:P<0.05).Conclusion CBA was a reliable way to detect muti-cytokines in asthma serum in a short time.No differences were found in cytokine levels in chronic asthma.However,the specific cytokine panel (IL-6,TNF-α,WBC and CRP) may be helpful to identify the acute exacerbation caused by bacterial and guide appropriate antibiotic therapy.