Assessment of resistin in asthmatic children

Abstract

Bronchialasthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells and cellular elements play a role. The chronic inflammation is associated with airway hyper responsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing, particularly at night or in the early morning. These episodes are usually associated with widespread, but variable, airflow obstruction within the lung that is often reversible either spontaneously or with treatment. The common assumption is that weight gain occurs because many asthmatic patients avoid exercise since physical activity can trigger their symptoms,while obesity can lead to asthma through some theories including dietary components containing high fats, Presence of gastroesophageal reflux (which is prevalent in both conditions), hormonal influences, atopy, chronic systemic inflammation, mechanical effects of obesity and a more detailed theory is that some cytokines increased in obese humans are promoters of inflammation. Many adipocytes hormones, such as tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α, leptin, adiponectin, retinol binding protein 4, resistin, adipsin, Vaspin, Visfatin and interleukin (IE)-6, collectively called adipokines, play important roles in the inflammatory diseases like bronchial asthma. Resistin is a protein mediator secreted by adipose tissue and have been involved in the regulation of inflammation and allergic responses, and suggested to affect the risk of asthma especially in obese patients. The present study was conducted to determine serum levels of resistin in asthmatic obese & non-obese children compared with obese and non-obese non asthmatic healthy subjects and their relationship with other parameters as anthropometric measurements, pulmonary functions, fasting blood glucose and lipid profile.