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The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine
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Assessment of severity of bronchial asthma by studying new markers: transforming growth factor-β1 and chitinase-3-like-1

The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine volume 28, pages 155–161 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Aim

The aim of this work was to look for non-invasive biomarkers that may enable us to assess asthma severity, as a surrogate for the invasive bronchial mucosa biopsy, by studying TGF-β1 and YKL-40.

Objectives

TGF-β1 is used as biomarkers in the pathogenesis, prediction and follow up of asthma severity. YKL-40 has a role in airway inflammation; this relation suggests that YKL-40 and TGF-β1 can be used as biomarkers in the pathogenesis, prediction and follow-up of asthma severity.

Background

Defective extracellular matrix (ECM) turnover characterizes airway remodeling. Transforming Growth Factor Beta-1 (TGF-β1) stimulate airway remodeling through activation of gene transcription via binding to specific subfamilies of cell transmembrane receptors.

Methods

The work was done on a 60 subject aged between 20–40 years with equal sex. Classified into three groups; 20 patients with mild asthma, 20 patients with severe asthma and 20 normal subjects were taken as controls. For all subjects chest X-ray, pulmonary functions tests, allergy skin prick test, eosinophilic count, total IgE, YKL-40 and TGF-β1 in serum were performed.

Results

The results showed that serum TGF-β1 and serum YKL-40 between the three groups were highly significantly different (P<0.01) between the three groups in asthmatic patients compared with control group.

Conclusions

These variations were correlated positively with the severity of the disease indicating that their increased serum levels may be a biological characteristic of the disease exacerbation with a sentinel role in asthma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Internal Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdelwahab M. Lotfy, Farag Khalil MBBCH, MSc, MD, Hendawy Zidan, Mahmoud Hadad, Mahmoud A. Elsayed & Mohammad M. Al-Sayyad

  2. Microbiology and Immunology, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

    Essam Abouelyazed

  3. Department of Clinical and chemical Pathology, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt

    Nagwa A. E. Mohamed

Authors
  1. Abdelwahab M. Lotfy
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  2. Farag Khalil MBBCH, MSc, MD
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  3. Hendawy Zidan
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  4. Mahmoud Hadad
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  5. Mahmoud A. Elsayed
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  6. Mohammad M. Al-Sayyad
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  7. Nagwa A. E. Mohamed
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  8. Essam Abouelyazed
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Farag Khalil MBBCH, MSc, MD.

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Lotfy, A.M., Khalil, F., Zidan, H. et al. Assessment of severity of bronchial asthma by studying new markers: transforming growth factor-β1 and chitinase-3-like-1. Egypt J Intern Med 28, 155–161 (2016). https://doi.org/10.4103/1110-7782.203295

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/1110-7782.203295

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