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Endogenous glucocorticoids and antigen-induced acute and late phase pulmonary responses
R S Peebles1, A Togias, C A Bickel
1Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
Background:
Several studies suggest that endogenous glucocorticoids can dampen the severity of experimental allergic reactions in animals.
Objective:
To investigate the influence that endogenous glucocorticoids have on the course of IgE-mediated pulmonary early and late phase reactions.
Methods:
Twenty-one allergic asthmatic and six healthy control subjects underwent inhaled antigen challenge with measurements of plasma cortisol and cortisone by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Results:
There were no differences between the asthmatic and control groups in the baseline levels of cortisol or cortisone. However, the asthmatic subjects had significantly higher cortisol levels (67.2 +/- 8.6 vs 35.1 +/- 4.5 ng/mL; P = 0.04) and had higher cortisol/cortisone ratios (4.8 +/- 0. 6 vs 3.0 +/- 0.2; P = 0.01) 8 h after challenge compared to the control subjects. Among the asthmatic subjects, those whose FEV1 recovered rapidly had higher baseline levels of cortisol and those who displayed a late phase reaction had lower levels of cortisol during the late phase period.
Conclusion:
The results suggest that endogenous glucocorticoids may play a significant role in the modulation of airway responses to antigen challenge, and that antigen challenge may induce cortisol production in allergic subjects.