Blood plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in children with persistent asthma

Abstract EN

Objectives: Plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)- 1 is the main inhibitor of the fibrinolytic system and is thought to play an essential role in tissue remodeling and fibrosis.

We sought to investigate the expression of PAI- 1 in blood of a sample of atopic children with persistent asthma in relation to other clinical and laboratory parameters.

Methods: We enrolled 45 atopic children (6- 12 years old) with physician- diagnosed persistent bronchial asthma from the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Unit of Ain Shams University Children’s Hospital as well as 45 age and sex- matched healthy children.

They were subjected to clinical evaluation, skin prick testing (SPT) with five common environmental allergens, complete blood counting, serum total IgE assay, and measurement of PAI- 1 by enzymatic immune assays.

Results: The blood PAI- 1 levels during acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma were significantly higher than the corresponding values after quiescence of symptoms and signs.

The healthy controls showed a significantly lower PAI- 1 expression as compared to the patients’ data whether during asthma exacerbation or remission.

Blood PAI- 1 expression did not vary with asthma severity.

However, being enrolled consecutively, the sample was not evenly distributed on various grades of severity.

Blood PAI- 1 expression did not bear any significant relation to the serum total IgE, absolute eosinophil count, or the use of inhaled corticosteroid therapy in our series.

The findings are indeed limited by the sample size.

Conclusion: We report the over- expression of PAI- 1 in the blood of a group of atopic school- aged children with persistent asthma that was still elevated after resolution of exacerbation.

Wider scale studies are needed to verify the current conclusions.

Study of PAI- 1 expression in other obstructive and/or restrictive pulmonary diseases and in early life wheeze could be worthwhile.