Production of IL-10 in serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of atopic asthmatic pediatric patients

CONSTANZA OTERO; N.GALASSI; N.AMBROSSI; A.TEPER; M.KOHAN; L. BEZRODNIK; S. GOLDSTEIN DE FINK; M. FINIASZ

Buenos Aires

Congreso; First French-Argentine Immunology Congress; 2010

Sociedad Argentina de Inmunologia

It has been described that asthma is related to defects in the regulation of the immune response and that IL-10 is a regulatory cytokine involved in the physiopathology of this disease.  In order to determine if this cytokine is involved in the response to different bacteria, we studied asthmatic pediatric patients at the time of crisis (Cr) and of stability (St), and healthy controls (He). The concentration of IL-10 was evaluated in supernatants (SN) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) cultured for 48 h or 96 h, with or without stimulation with Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sp), responsible for most of the respiratory bacterial infections in these patients, or with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt), that provokes a respiratory infection but does not affect asthmatic individuals more than healthy ones. IL-10 concentration was also evaluated in serum. All determinations were performed by ELISA. Results: IL-10 (pg/ml, x+SEM)  SNs: He:  C 13+ 6; Sp 181+55; Mt 102+24 (n=10);  St: C 21+4; Sp 170+49; Mt 141+42 (n=7);   Cr  C 17+7; Sp 175+28; Mt 187+40 (n=5). Sera: He:13+4 (n=10); St:15+5 (n=11); Cr:20+6 (n=11).  The concentration of IL-10 in supernatants obtained by culturing for 96 h yielded similar results. No differences were observed in the response of patients at times of crisis and stability. No significant differences were observed in the response to the two bacterial antigens tested, although a slight tendency to a higher response to Sp can be observed in He and St, which is not observed in Cr. These data suggest that IL-10 would not be involved in the response to bacteria, at least to the ones studied. Moreover, no significant differences were observed in the serum IL-10 concentration of the different groups studied. This suggests that serum IL-10 concentration would not be a useful parameter for the clinical control of asthmatic patients.