Effect of Inhaled interleukin-4 on Airway Hyperreactivity in Asthmatics

摘要

Interleukin-4(IL-4) has been shown to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of allergic disease in- cluding bronchial asthma. In order to investigate the role of IL-4 in airway hyperreactivity, we investi- gated the effect of inhaled recombinant human IL-4 on airway responsiveness to methacholine and eosinophil numbers in induced sputum in eight patients with allergic asthma using a placebo-con- trolled study design. Our results demonstrated that in the control experiments receiving vehicle inha- lation, methacholine PC_20 values did not change nor did the numbers of eosinophils in sputum change from baseline values.