[Expression of adhesion molecules in bronchial asthma].

Eosinophilic infiltration into the airway is thought to be a key process to induce late asthmatic response, and it seems to be very important for the treatment of bronchial asthma to study the precise mechanisms of selective infiltration of eosinophils. In this study, we examined which adhesion molecules were involved in selective eosinophil infiltration into the airway, by immunohistochemistry, immuno-electron microscopy and in situ hybridization methods. In the sputum and peripheral blood eosinophils of asthmatics, Mac-1 was strongly expressed and LFA-1, VLA-4 and sLe-X were also expressed. In the bronchial submucosa of lung tissues from autopsy and biopsy of patients with bronchial asthma, immunoreactivity of ICAM-1 was detected in the endothelial cells, the basal layer of the bronchial epithelium, mononuclear cells and extracellular spaces, and VCAM-1 was also detected in the endothelial cells, but ELAM-1 was weakly detected. In addition, immunoreactivities of Mac-1, LFA-1, and VLA-4 were detected in eosinophils infiltrated into the bronchial submucosa, but sLe-X was weakly detected. These results suggest that binding between ICAM-1 and Mac-1 or LFA-1, VCAM-1 and VLA-4, not but ELAM-1 and sLe-X, is mainly involved in eosinophil infiltration into the airway in allergic reaction such as bronchial asthma.