Expression of Basophil Activation Markers in Pediatric Asthma.

BACKGROUND Asthma is very common in children and its diagnosis is based on clinical manifestations, which can be misdiagnosed as other respiratory diseases with similar signs and symptoms. OBJECTIVE To analyze the expression of ST2L and CD203c in the diagnosis of pediatric asthma. METHODS Basophils were purified from whole blood samples of patients and healthy controls using Ficol-Paque gradient and Basophil Isolation Kit. RNA extraction was done by RNX-Plus solution and after synthesis of cDNA, the gene expression was analyzed by means of real time PCR. RESULTS Patients expressed significantly higher levels of CD203c than healthy controls (p=0.01). Although there was an increase in the transcription level of ST2L gene in patients, the results were not statistically significant compared to those obtained from the healthy controls (p>0.05). A Specificity of 60% and a sensitivity of 73% were found using ROC curve for CD203c expression. Patients with positive family history of asthma exhibited more CD203c and ST2L expression (p<0.05). CONCLUSION It is proposed that determining CD203c expression by real time PCR may be an effective technique for diagnosis of pediatric asthma.