Abstract:

Abstract:Objective To measure the change of serum interleukin-23 (IL-23) level before and after treatment with glucocortcoid and analyze the correlations between levels of IL-23 and IL-4， IFN-γ，IL-17, and explore the role of IL-23 in bronchial asthma.
Methods Thirty femal BALB/c mice were randomly divided into three group (n=10): group A (asthma model), group B (corticosteroid treatment) and group C (normal control). All mice were killed 24 h after final OVA challenge.The blood samples were obtained for measurements of serum IgE，IL-4，IFN-γ,IL-17and IL-23 levels by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA).
Results The mouse asthma model appeared ethological changes specific to asthma.The level of OVA specific IgE in serum increased.The level of serum IL-4 increased and the level  of IFN-γ decreased.Correlation analysis showed negative relationship between  IL-4 and IFN-γ（r=－0.859，P＜0.01），there existed Th1／Th2 imbalance.The level of serum IL-23 in group A was higher than that in group C (P＜0.01). In mice treated with inhaled budesonide (group B)，the level of serum IL-23 was lower than that in group A (P＜0.01).The concentration of IL-23 had  no correlation with both IL-4 and IFN-γ.There was a positive correlation between the levels of serum IL-23 and IL-17 (r=0.763，P＜0.01).
Conclusion IL-23 in serum might be involved in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma，and could be inhibited by inhaled glucocorticoid. IL-23 has no relationship with IFN-γ and IL-4. It suggested that IL-23 might contribute to the development of asthma indirectly by inducing IL-17 generation.

Key words: bronchial asthma；interleukin-4；interferon-γ；interleukin-17；interleukin-23； , glucocorticoid