Allergen-specific IgE is not detectable in the bronchial mucosa of nonatopic asthmatic patients

摘要

Activation by aeroallergen-specific IgE of bronchial mucosal mast cells in clinically sensitized atopic subjects is an acknowledged exacerbating (some speculate causative) stimulus for asthma, although the existence of the disease in nonatopic subjects, who are conventionally defined as those with absence of allergen-specific IgE, as determined by using skin prick and in vitro tests, begs the question of whether allergens and IgE play an indispensable role in asthma pathogenesis. We have previously shown that nonatopic asthmatic patients, like atopic patients, display the entire molecular machinery to support B-cell switching in the bronchial mucosa and that this does indeed occur, with indirect evidence of increased local IgE synthesis.