An investigation on the effects of dexamethasone on IgE, IL-4 and IL-17 levels in the serum of rats with experimental allergic rhinitis

Objective To investigate the effects of dexamethasone(DEX) on IgE, IL-4 and IL-17 levels in the serum of rats with experimental allergic rhinitis(EAR) and the implications of IL-4 and IL-17 in the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis.Methods EAR model was induced by the method of using ovalbumin(OV) in rats at first. Then, they were divided into treating group(TG) and modeling group(MG) respectively, with another healthy controlling group(HCG) of rats set up at the same time. DEX was orally giwen to the animals of TG for 2 weeks. Passive cutaneous antigen assay (PCA) was utilized to evaluate the conditions of EAR and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was taken to detect the serum levels of IgE, IL-4 and IL-17 in the experimental rats.Results The serum levels of IgE, IL-4 and IL-17 were 38.67±4.13 Pg/ml,106.31±12.9 Pg/ml and 30.61±2.55 Pg/ml respectively among the animals of MG, significantly higher than the values of 23.27±1.36 Pg/ml, 93.65±7.78 Pg/ml and 22.56±2.67 Pg/ml respectively in HCG(P0.05) andwith significant positive correlations among the levels of IgE to IL-4 and IL-17. With 2 weeks of DEX orally taking, these values of IgE(24.23±4.38 Pg/ml),IL-4(92.67±16.4 Pg/ml) and IL-17 (22.97±2.50 Pg/ml) were significantly decreased respectively in TG, with significant differences when compared with those of MG(P0.05).Conclusions IL-4 and IL-17 may hold regulatory effects on the pathogenesis of AR and are the important affecting factors on the level of IgE. The pharmacological effect of DEX on IgE to reduce its serum content may be brought about via the effect on the serum levels of IL-4 and IL-17.[BG(!][BHDWG7mm,WK155mmZQ*9W][SQ*2]