Role of Th2 type Cytokines and IgE in Asthmatic Children

Bronchial asthma (BA) is usually persistent through allergic sensitization, which is likely to result in bronchial hyper-responsiveness and acute bronchoconstriction due to reactions to specific and non-specific trigger stimuli. Many research focused on the role of T cells; particularly, T helper 2 (Th2) cells which linked to controlling immunoglobulin E (IgE) production due to their role in producing different cytokines, like Interleukin-13 (IL-13), in addition to influencing the function of eosinophils through the actions of IL-5. From this perspective, we decided to study the role of IgE, IL-13, and IL-5 in asthmatic children. IL-5, IL-13, and total IgE have been measured by ELISA technique in the serum of 57 children with bronchial asthma and compared to that of 20 healthy controls. Our results reported that 38/57 (66.67%) of the patient group had a family history for allergy, and parental consanguinity was found in 4/57 families (0.07%). IgE levels showed high statistical significance in asthmatic patients in comparison to controls (p = 0.00001), while IL-13 and IL-5 levels were not significantly different in patients versus control groups (P= 0.96, P = 0.81). Moreover, IgE was found significantly increased in both groups with/without family history for allergy (p = 0.009), whereas IL-13 was significantly elevated only in the group of patients with family history for allergy (0.01). This study demonstrates that asthma is strongly related to the family history of allergy, where IgE, as well as IL-13 levels, were found high in these asthmatic patients suggesting their association with underlying symptoms. Unexpectedly IL-5 was found insignificantly decreased.