Expressions of regulatory CD4~+CD25~+T cells, IL- 4, IL- 5 in peripheral blood from asthma patients

AIM: To evaluate the changes and the correlation between regulatory CD4+CD25+ T cells and IL- 4,IL- 5 in peripheral blood from the patients with asthma. METHODS: Forty patients with asthma and 40 healthy volunteers were included in this study. The proportion of CD4+CD25+ T cell population in total T cells was evaluated by flow cytometric analysis.The serum IL- 4 and IL- 5 levels were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: The expression of CD4+CD25+ T cells in peripheral blood from the patients with asthma was much lower in comparison with the healthy volunteers(P0.01) ; The expression of CD4+CD25+ T cells in peripheral blood from the patients during acute attacks was lower than that in chronic phase(P0.01); IL- 4, IL- 5 levels from the patients with asthma were higher than those in healthy volunteers(P0.05); IL- 4, IL- 5 levels during acute attacks were higher than those in chronic phase(P0.05); The expression of CD4+CD25+ T cells in peripheral blood was in negative correlation with the levels of IL- 4, IL- 5 from the patients with asthma during acute attacks (r=-0.675, -0.767, P0.01). CONCLUSION: Regulatory CD4+CD25+ T cells play a very significant role in activation of asthma, and is the important reason for the maladjustment of cellular immunofunction in the patients with asthma.