Tsuda S, Kato K, Miyasato M, Sasai Y
Department of Dermatology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
J Dermatol. 1992 Apr;19(4):208-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1346-8138.1992.tb03209.x.
Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), one of the eosinophil granule proteins, is released during allergic reactions. We investigated the possibility of correlations among the serum levels of ECP, clinical activity, and eosinophil number in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Forty-four patients with AD and 25 normal, non-atopic subjects were studied. ECP was quantitated by a double antibody radioimmunoassay. The levels of serum ECP correlate with the grading of severity of clinical evaluations in AD. The patients with severe and moderate AD had significantly higher ECP concentrations than normal controls (p less than 0.001); mild AD had levels identical with those of control groups. A positive correlation was observed between the number of peripheral blood eosinophils and serum ECP levels in the severe cases (r = 0.67, p less than 0.05). Furthermore, these ECP levels significantly decreased in response to either improvement of clinical severity of AD or decreased numbers of blood hypodense eosinophils in anti-allergic drug-treated patients. No coefficient of correlation was observed between serum ECP and IgE levels. These findings indicate that eosinophils may release their granular contents, including ECP, into the peripheral circulation and/or inflammatory skin lesions and subsequently provoke a clinical exacerbation by stimulating allergic reactions.
嗜酸性粒细胞阳离子蛋白（ECP）是嗜酸性粒细胞颗粒蛋白之一，在过敏反应中释放。我们研究了特应性皮炎（AD）患者血清ECP水平、临床活动度和嗜酸性粒细胞数量之间的相关性。对44例AD患者和25名正常非特应性受试者进行了研究。采用双抗体放射免疫分析法对ECP进行定量。血清ECP水平与AD临床评估的严重程度分级相关。重度和中度AD患者的ECP浓度显著高于正常对照组（p<0.001）；轻度AD患者的ECP水平与对照组相同。在重度病例中，外周血嗜酸性粒细胞数量与血清ECP水平呈正相关（r = 0.67，p<0.05）。此外，在抗过敏药物治疗的患者中，随着AD临床严重程度的改善或血液中低密度嗜酸性粒细胞数量的减少，这些ECP水平显著降低。未观察到血清ECP与IgE水平之间的相关系数。这些发现表明，嗜酸性粒细胞可能将其颗粒内容物（包括ECP）释放到外周循环和/或炎症性皮肤病变中，随后通过刺激过敏反应引发临床症状加重。
