Expression of interleukin -12 and correlation between interleukin -12 and eosinophils in nasal mucosa in allergic rhinitis mice

OBJECTIVE To observe the expres-sion of interleukin-12 and eosinophils in the nasal mu-cosa of allergic rhinitis mice. METHODS Thirty nine male BALB/c mice,6～8 weeks old,were randomly divided into three groups: control group,allergic rhinitis (AR)group, and Budesonide treatment group. Al-lergic rhinitis model in mice were established by using ovalbumin intraperitoneal immunization and nasal anti-gen challenge. The nasal mucosa obtained from mice of three groups were stained routinely by HE and im-munohistochemical method to observe the distribu-tion and expression of interleukin-12 and eosinophils. RESULTS The expression of eosinophils in the nasal mucosa of AR group was significantly higher than con-trol group(P0.01). After treatment with Budes-onide,eosinophils’expression were decreased in nasal mucosa(P0.01,compared with the AR group). However,interleukin-12 expression was significantly increased compared with AR group(P 0.01),and had no significant difference compared with the control group. There was a negative relation-ship between the expression of interleukin-12 and eosino-phil in nasal mucosa (R =0.9252). CONCLUSION The abnormal expression of interleukin-12 in the nasal mu-cosa played an important role in the pathogenic mecha-nism of AR. The recovery or increase expression of interleukin-12 in topical tissue in vivo could suppress the expression of eosinophils and may improve the therapeutic effectiveness of AR.