Skip to main content
Mediators of Inflammation logoLink to Mediators of Inflammation
. 2002 Oct;11(5):307–312. doi: 10.1080/09629350210000015719

Cellular and cytokine immunoregulation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.

Wanda Stankiewicz 1, Marek P Dabrowski 1, Andrzej Chcialowski 1, Tadeusz Plusa 1
PMCID: PMC1781676  PMID: 12467523

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Different forms of chronic airway inflammation may involve diverse pathogenic elements. In general, deficient defence response is a feature of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), whereas distorted immunoregulatory mechanisms lead to development of asthmatic symptoms. In addition to diverse effector mechanisms, the cellular and humoral elements participating in the development of immune response may appear to be different in COPD and bronchial asthma (BA) patients. AIMS: To evaluate the immunoregulatory properties of T cells and monocytes in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and to determine the chosen cytokine profiles in COPD and BA patients. METHODS: The microcultures of PBMC from COPD and BA patients were assessed for the T-cell response to mitogens, saturation of interleukin (IL)-2 receptors, T-cell suppressive activity and monokine influence on lymphocyte proliferation. Concomitantly, the cytokine (IL-1beta, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8) concentrations were determined in the serum, the broncho-alveolar lavage fluid and in the culture supernatants. RESULTS: The T-lymphocyte reactions (response to phytohaemagglutinin, IL-2 receptor saturation, suppressive activity) were lower in BA patients than in COPD patients. Reversely, the immunogenic activity of monocytes (IL-1beta versus IL-1ra production) was higher in BA patients than in COPD patients. The highest values of cytokine concentrations were found in the culture supernatants. The concentrations of tumour necrosis factor-alpha, IL-4, IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly higher and the concentration of IL-1ra was lower in BA patients than in COPD patients. CONCLUSION: The assessments of cellular immunoregulatory properties and cytokine profiles in the cultures of blood mononuclear cells may prove helpful for diagnostic and therapeutic discrimination between BA and COPD patients.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (147.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Brown P. H., Crompton G. K., Greening A. P. Proinflammatory cytokines in acute asthma. Lancet. 1991 Sep 7;338(8767):590–593. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)90605-o. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Burrows B., Martinez F. D., Halonen M., Barbee R. A., Cline M. G. Association of asthma with serum IgE levels and skin-test reactivity to allergens. N Engl J Med. 1989 Feb 2;320(5):271–277. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198902023200502. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Busse W. W., Lemanske R. F., Jr Asthma. N Engl J Med. 2001 Feb 1;344(5):350–362. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200102013440507. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Constant S. L., Bottomly K. Induction of Th1 and Th2 CD4+ T cell responses: the alternative approaches. Annu Rev Immunol. 1997;15:297–322. doi: 10.1146/annurev.immunol.15.1.297. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dabrowski M. P., Dabrowska-Bernstein B. K., Stasiak A., Gajkowski K., Korniluk S. Immunologic and clinical evaluation of multiple sclerosis patients treated with corticosteroids and/or calf thymic hormones. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1987;496:697–706. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb35832.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dinarello C. A. The role of the interleukin-1-receptor antagonist in blocking inflammation mediated by interleukin-1. N Engl J Med. 2000 Sep 7;343(10):732–734. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200009073431011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dinarello C. A., Wolff S. M. The role of interleukin-1 in disease. N Engl J Med. 1993 Jan 14;328(2):106–113. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199301143280207. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Holt P. G., Macaubas C., Stumbles P. A., Sly P. D. The role of allergy in the development of asthma. Nature. 1999 Nov 25;402(6760 Suppl):B12–B17. doi: 10.1038/35037009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jeffery P. K. Bronchial biopsies and airway inflammation. Eur Respir J. 1996 Aug;9(8):1583–1587. doi: 10.1183/09031936.96.09081583. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. O'Hollaren M. T., Yunginger J. W., Offord K. P., Somers M. J., O'Connell E. J., Ballard D. J., Sachs M. I. Exposure to an aeroallergen as a possible precipitating factor in respiratory arrest in young patients with asthma. N Engl J Med. 1991 Feb 7;324(6):359–363. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199102073240602. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Prescott S. L., Macaubas C., Holt B. J., Smallacombe T. B., Loh R., Sly P. D., Holt P. G. Transplacental priming of the human immune system to environmental allergens: universal skewing of initial T cell responses toward the Th2 cytokine profile. J Immunol. 1998 May 15;160(10):4730–4737. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Robinson D. S., Hamid Q., Ying S., Tsicopoulos A., Barkans J., Bentley A. M., Corrigan C., Durham S. R., Kay A. B. Predominant TH2-like bronchoalveolar T-lymphocyte population in atopic asthma. N Engl J Med. 1992 Jan 30;326(5):298–304. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199201303260504. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sad S., Marcotte R., Mosmann T. R. Cytokine-induced differentiation of precursor mouse CD8+ T cells into cytotoxic CD8+ T cells secreting Th1 or Th2 cytokines. Immunity. 1995 Mar;2(3):271–279. doi: 10.1016/1074-7613(95)90051-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sanderson C. J. Interleukin-5, eosinophils, and disease. Blood. 1992 Jun 15;79(12):3101–3109. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Shi H. Z., Xiao C. Q., Zhong D., Qin S. M., Liu Y., Liang G. R., Xu H., Chen Y. Q., Long X. M., Xie Z. F. Effect of inhaled interleukin-5 on airway hyperreactivity and eosinophilia in asthmatics. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1998 Jan;157(1):204–209. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm.157.1.9703027. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Walker C., Bauer W., Braun R. K., Menz G., Braun P., Schwarz F., Hansel T. T., Villiger B. Activated T cells and cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavages from patients with various lung diseases associated with eosinophilia. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1994 Oct;150(4):1038–1048. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm.150.4.7921434. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wills-Karp M., Luyimbazi J., Xu X., Schofield B., Neben T. Y., Karp C. L., Donaldson D. D. Interleukin-13: central mediator of allergic asthma. Science. 1998 Dec 18;282(5397):2258–2261. doi: 10.1126/science.282.5397.2258. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Mediators of Inflammation are provided here courtesy of Wiley

RESOURCES