FIGURE 3.

Plasma and saliva interleukin (IL)-19, IL-6 and IL-17 levels in patients with asthma of different severity categories. The data are for samples from patients with severe asthma (n=18) and mild/moderate asthma (n=12) and healthy controls (n=6). a, b) IL-19 level was significantly increased in plasma (a) and saliva (b) of patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma; the increase in IL-19 level was more pronounced in saliva than in plasma level. c, d) There was a trend towards increased plasma IL-6 level (c) in patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma, and a significant increase in saliva IL-6 level (d) in patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma. e, f) No distinct pattern was found in plasma IL-17 levels (e) in patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma, but there was a trend towards increased saliva IL-17 levels (f) in patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma. Two-way comparison was done using two-tailed t-test. ns: nonsignificant. *: p<0.05; ****: p<0.0001.