Miyasato M, Tsuda S, Nakama T, Kato K, Kitamura N, Nagaji J, Sasai Y
Department of Dermatology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
J Dermatol. 1996 Jun;23(6):382-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1346-8138.1996.tb04038.x.
In patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), serum levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) have been shown to be a good reflector of disease severity. To elucidate what serum levels of ECP actually reflect, ECP levels in serum and plasma and cytological aspects of blood eosinophils were examined in AD patients (n = 27) and compared to healthy subjects (n = 12). Significantly elevated levels of serum ECP were noted in AD patients, while plasma ECP were uniformly recorded at nadir levels in both AD patients and normal subjects. In addition to blood eosinophilia, AD patients had significantly increased numbers of hypodense eosinophils (HEo) with morphological characteristics consistent with an activated state. Serum ECP levels strongly correlated with HEo numbers rather than with total eosinophil counts. These results indicate that elevated levels of serum ECP may be a consequence of in vitro degranulation of "activated" HEo, not of ECP supplementation from lesional skin. In addition, the dynamic correlations of eosinophil-associated parameters (total eosinophil counts, HEo numbers, and serum ECP levels) with AD severity suggest that inflammatory events in lesional skin may be involved in causing not only eosinophilopoiesis in bone marrow, but also development of HEo in the periphery, whose degree in turn may be mirrored in the levels of serum ECP in vitro.
在特应性皮炎（AD）患者中，血清嗜酸性粒细胞阳离子蛋白（ECP）水平已被证明是疾病严重程度的良好反映指标。为了阐明血清ECP水平实际反映的是什么，我们检测了AD患者（n = 27）血清和血浆中的ECP水平以及血液嗜酸性粒细胞的细胞学特征，并与健康受试者（n = 12）进行了比较。AD患者血清ECP水平显著升高，而在AD患者和正常受试者中，血浆ECP均记录为最低水平。除了血液嗜酸性粒细胞增多外，AD患者低密度嗜酸性粒细胞（HEo）数量显著增加，其形态特征与激活状态一致。血清ECP水平与HEo数量密切相关，而与嗜酸性粒细胞总数无关。这些结果表明，血清ECP水平升高可能是“活化”HEo体外脱颗粒的结果，而非来自皮损处皮肤的ECP补充。此外，嗜酸性粒细胞相关参数（嗜酸性粒细胞总数、HEo数量和血清ECP水平）与AD严重程度的动态相关性表明，皮损处皮肤的炎症事件可能不仅参与骨髓中嗜酸性粒细胞生成，还参与外周血中HEo的发育，而其程度反过来可能在体外血清ECP水平中得到反映。
