Expression of Basophil Activation Markers in Pediatric Asthma.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is very common in children and its diagnosis is based on clinical manifestations, which can be misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases with similar signs and symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the expression of ST2L and CD203c in the diagnosis of pediatric asthma.

METHODS: Basophils were purified from whole blood samples of patients and healthy controls using Ficol-Paque gradient and Basophil Isolation Kit. RNA extraction was done by RNX-Plus solution and after synthesis of cDNA, the gene expression was analyzed by means of real time PCR.

RESULTS: Patients expressed significantly higher levels of CD203c than healthy controls (p=0.01). Although there was an increase in the transcription level of ST2L gene in patients, the results were not statistically significant compared to those obtained from the healthy controls (p>0.05). A Specificity of 60% and a sensitivity of 73% were found using ROC curve for CD203c expression. Patients with positive family history of asthma exhibited more CD203c and ST2L expression (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: It is proposed that determining CD203c expression by real time PCR may be an effective technique for diagnosis of pediatric asthma.