The Relationship between Serum YKL-40 Levels and Severity of Asthma

Ykl-40 (chitinase-3-like-1) has been introduced as a marker of inflammation in asthma. the aim of this study was to determine the role of ykl-40 in asthma and to evaluate the relationship between ykl-40 and asthma severity. in the study, 60 non-smoker asthma patients without additional diseases (aged between 20-60 years, female: 34) were grouped [group i: well controlled asthma patients (n: 30), group ii: patients during acute exacerbation of asthma (n: 30)]. healthy non-smoker female individuals were included in group iii (n: 30) as a control group. the level of serum ykl- 40 of all groups were determined by elisa. also, serum ykl- 40 level was correlated with age, asthma duration in years, body mass index (bmi), forced expiratory volume in first second/ forced vital capacity (fev1/fvc, %), fev1 (%), and total ige levels of asthma patients. mean serum ykl-40 level was highest in patients during acute exacerbation of asthma (36.36±10.49 ng/ml) while mean serum ykl-40 level was the lowest (13.20±5.60 ng/ml) in the control group. there was a negative significant correlation between the serum ykl-40 levels and fev1 (%) in patients during acute exacerbation of asthma. there were no significant correlations between the serum ykl-40 levels and other variables in group ii. we found that increased serum ykl-40 levels may be used as a marker for evaluation of asthma severity and genetic polymorphism.