Text Box: THE CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DETECTION OF  EOTAXIN IN CHILDREN PATIENTS WITH BRONCHIAL ASTHMA
LI Changchong, LIN Jian, LI MengRong, WU RongXi, CHEN XiaoFang  Affiliated Children’s Hospital,Wen Zhou Medical College, China

Objective: To explore the roles of Eotaxin in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma and to evaluate the clinical value of this chemokine in the diagnosis of asthma..
Methods:  ELISA method was used to determine the concentrations of Eotaxin in serum and PBMC .Serum samples were obtained from 19 asthmatic patients during acute attack, 20 asthmatic patients in remission and 14 normal subjects. PBMC were obtained from 9 asthmatic patients during acute attack, 10 asthmatic patients in remission and 8 norma subjects .
Results: The Eotaxin level (119.8±23.9 pg/ml) in the patients with acute asthma was much higher than those in the asthmatic patient in remission (61.7±10.9 pg/ml) or normal subjects (47.5±9.5 pg/ml).  The expression of Eotaxin level correlated well with the severity of symptom in asthmatics (t=3.148, p<0.05), whereas the Eotaxin level in PBMC in three groups were all too low to be determined.
Conclusion: Eotaxin is an important chemokine which is involved in the asthmatic process by activating eosinophil cells, but not T lymphocytes. Eotaxin in serum can be used to monitor the eosinophilic inflammatory process occurring in the asthmatic airways, it is of much value in the diagnosis of bronchial asthma.
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