Abstract
Poor asthma control is associated with increased airway neutrophils. Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) is a potent neutrophil chemoattractant. We examined the levels of LTB4 levels in the sputum of asthma patients and the relationship with disease severity.
47 asthma patients (categorised according to Global Initiative for Asthma treatment stage) and 12 healthy controls provided sputum samples that were processed first with PBS to obtain supernatants and secondly with dithiothreitol (DTT) to obtain supernatants. LTB4 levels were determined by ELISA.
LTB4 levels were significantly higher in step 1 (steroid naïve) and step 3 (inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) plus long acting β-agonist) patients than step 2 patients (ICS alone) (p=0.02 and p=0.01, respectively). There was very good correlation when comparing PBS processed to DTT processed supernatants.
High LTB4 levels were found in the sputum of asthmatics at step 3 despite ICS use.
Abstract
The levels of LTB4 are increased in the sputum of subgroups of asthma patients http://ow.ly/Xu6I303jVb5
Footnotes
This article has supplementary material available from openres.ersjournals.com
Support statement: This report is independent research supported by National Institute for Health Research South Manchester Respiratory and Allergy Clinical Research Facility at University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Open Funder Registry.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at openres.ersjournals.com
- Received November 16, 2015.
- Accepted July 7, 2016.
- Copyright ©ERS 2016
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.