Researchers Find Link Between Mast Cell Progenitors, Reduced Lung Function in Patients with Allergic Asthma

By Jeff Craven, /alert Contributor
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A higher frequency of circulating mast cell progenitors was associated with reduced lung function, female gender and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF‐21) in patients with allergic asthma, according to recent research published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

“Hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors in the bone marrow can give rise to tissue-resident mast cells. Human mast cells have been derived in vitro from peripheral or cord blood for many years,” Maya Salomonsson, from the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues wrote in their study. “However, we recently identified a population of mast cell progenitors (MCp) in the blood circulation as CD4-, CD8-, CD19-, CD14-, CD34hi, CD117+, FcεRI+ cells, thus allowing the quantification and characterization of this rare population in healthy and diseased individuals.”


Man with allergic asthma. Source: Getty

The researchers measured the levels of MCp, total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) and 180 plasma proteins related to inflammation and immune response in blood samples and performed spirometry tests for 38 patients with allergic asthma and 29 control patients from the Minimally Invasive Diagnostic Procedures in Allergy, Asthma, or Food hypersensitivity (MIDAS) cohort. The patients were 18 years to 41 years old with well-controlled disease treated with either inhaled corticosteroids or oral leukotriene-receptor antagonist.

When comparing blood MCps across patients with allergic asthma and control groups, the researchers found similar MCp frequencies; however, patients with allergic asthma and reduced forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF). Female gender was also associated with higher frequency of MCp, while FGF-21 level was positively associated with MCp and negatively associated with lung function. Patients in the allergic asthma group had an 11 times higher total IgE level compared with control patients, and expression of FcεRI on mast cell progenitors—which was enhanced in mouse models—also was higher in the patients with allergic asthma, the researchers said. However, while FcεRI expression was correlated with total IgE level in control patients, this was not true in allergic asthma patients, “which further supports that the level of IgE regulates the FcεRI expression on MCp, up to a saturation point,” the researchers said.

“Worth noting is that both FGF-21 and [Discoidin, CUB and LCCL domain-containing protein 2] DCBLD2 levels correlated negatively with FEV1 in all subjects and in the controls, while in the allergic asthmatics the negative correlation between FGF-21 and FEV1 showed only a trend, and was not at all observed between  DCBLD2 and FEV1,” the researchers wrote in their study. “Hence, whereas the relationship between MCp frequency and FEV1 was significant only among the allergic asthmatics, FGF-21 and DCBLD2 levels were related to reduced FEV1 in general.”

 

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