Neutrophil defensins: Their possible role in allergic asthma

Background: neutrophil defensins,originally identified as broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides,have been implicated in the regulation of inflammatory and immunological processes. objectives: to investigate whether the in vitro challenge of neutrophils from patients with bronchial asthma with allergens stimulated the release of α-defensins and whether levels released were dependent on lung infections. method: the neutrophils were cultivated with different agonists and the concentration of α-defensin in cell-free supernatant was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). results: neutrophils from allergic patients released α-defensins via an allergen-dependent mechanism. our results indicate that the in vitro activation of neutrophils is highly allergen-specific. in this context,allergens other than those which produced clinical symptoms did not elicit α-defensin release,and allergens had no effect on neutrophils from healthy donors. however,neutrophils from both allergic patients and healthy controls were able to release α-defensins upon treatment with pma. in the allergen-stimulated neutrophils,cells from asthmatic patients stimulated with a sensitizing allergen showed a significantly higher production of α-defensin under respiratory tract infection than cells from the same patients without such an infection conclusion: neutrophils from allergic patients release α-defensins via an allergen-dependent mechanism. © 2011 esmon publicidad.