Ogino Keiki, Obase Yasushi, Takahashi Noriko, Shimizu Hiroki, Takigawa Tomoko, Wang Da-Hong, Ouchi Kazunobu, Oka Mikio
Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
J Asthma. 2011 Feb;48(1):1-7. doi: 10.3109/02770903.2010.528496. Epub 2010 Nov 1.
Much attention has been directed to the induction of arginase I in the lung of asthmatic mice. However, there is no agreement on the changes of serum arginase activity in asthmatic patients among previous studies.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of serum arginase I in asthmatic patients.
Serum arginase I was examined cross-sectionally in non-smoking asthmatic patients (n = 23) and healthy individuals (n = 30) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and its correlations with several clinical parameters were investigated.
Serum levels of arginase I were significantly increased in asthmatic patients (mean ± SD 67.4 ± 41.0 ng/mL) compared with healthy controls (27.2 ± 12.9 ng/mL). In healthy controls, a difference in arginase I levels was not observed between sex groups but was observed between age groups. In asthmatic patients, serum arginase I levels were not different between groups of age, sex, and inhalation steroid therapy but were different between groups of atopic status. Non-atopic asthmatic patients revealed significantly high serum arginase I levels compared with atopic asthmatic patients and healthy controls although no difference was observed between atopic asthmatic patients and healthy controls. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that serum arginase I level had a significant negative correlation with age and a positive correlation with red blood cell numbers in healthy controls, whereas in asthmatic patients, it had significant positive correlations with alanine aminotransferase (ALT), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and a negative correlation with immunoglobulin-E (IgE).
High serum arginase I levels in asthmatic patients may be associated with airway inflammation in non-atopic asthma.
哮喘小鼠肺中精氨酸酶I的诱导已受到广泛关注。然而，以往研究对于哮喘患者血清精氨酸酶活性的变化尚无定论。
本研究旨在评估哮喘患者血清精氨酸酶I的临床相关性。
采用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）对非吸烟哮喘患者（n = 23）和健康个体（n = 30）进行血清精氨酸酶I的横断面检测，并研究其与多个临床参数的相关性。
与健康对照组（27.2±12.9 ng/mL）相比，哮喘患者血清精氨酸酶I水平显著升高（均值±标准差 67.4±41.0 ng/mL）。在健康对照组中，不同性别组间未观察到精氨酸酶I水平差异，但不同年龄组间存在差异。在哮喘患者中，不同年龄、性别和吸入性糖皮质激素治疗组间血清精氨酸酶I水平无差异，但不同特应性状态组间存在差异。非特应性哮喘患者的血清精氨酸酶I水平显著高于特应性哮喘患者和健康对照组，尽管特应性哮喘患者与健康对照组之间未观察到差异。Spearman相关性分析显示，在健康对照组中，血清精氨酸酶I水平与年龄呈显著负相关，与红细胞数量呈正相关；而在哮喘患者中，它与丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）、高敏C反应蛋白（hs-CRP）呈显著正相关，与免疫球蛋白E（IgE）呈负相关。
哮喘患者血清精氨酸酶I水平升高可能与非特应性哮喘的气道炎症有关。
