Eotaxin-2 in sputum cell culture to evaluate asthma inflammation

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Abstract
The aim of the present study was to elucidate whether the culture of cells recovered from induced sputum may represent a suitable model to evaluate cytokine and chemokine production by airway inflammatory cells.Sputum induction was performed in 21 normal subjects and 30 asthmatic patients. A total of 21 out of the 30 asthmatic patients were taking inhaled corticosteroids, while the remaining nine were steroid-naive asthmatics. The steroid-naive group was evaluated before and after a 14-day treatment with oral prednisone (40 mg·day−1). The supernatant of lysed and centrifuged sputum and the supernatant of sputum cell culture were analysed. Tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-8 (CXCL8), IL-1β, IL-13 and eotaxin-2 (CCL24) concentrations were determined by specific ELISA.Eotaxin-2 production by cell culture was higher in the asthma group (131±108 pg·mL−1) than in the control group (36±41 pg·mL−1) and treatment with oral corticosteroids eliminated this difference. In addition, reduction of eotaxin-2 levels by corticosteroid treatment was greater in cell culture (81.3% reduction) than in sputum (26.4%). There was correlation between the decrease in eotaxin-2 production and the decrease in blood eosinophil number and between eotaxin-2 and eosinophils in sputum.Eotaxin-2 may play an important role in asthma and the response to corticosteroid treatment suggests that analysis of sputum cell culture is relevant as an inflammatory parameter.