Reviews and feature articleA comprehensive evaluation of the enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant systems in childhood asthma
Section snippets
Patients with asthma
Patients with asthma have been detailed previously.15, 21, 22 Briefly, children with mild asthma age 6 to 16 years who were not receiving any controller medication and who had not had any symptoms of respiratory infection or asthma exacerbation within the previous 4 weeks were included in this study. Spirometric measurements, total IgE, and eosinophil counts were obtained. Skin testing was performed as detailed previously.15 From this cohort of white children with mild asthma, results are
Results
The study population consisted of 164 children with mild asthma and 173 healthy children. Characteristics of the study groups are summarized in Table I. As expected, asthma and atopy–related findings including IgE, skin prick tests, FEV1%, eosinophil counts and family history of allergic diseases were significantly different between the 2 groups (P < .001).
Discussion
The aim of our study was to evaluate comprehensively the various aspects of the antioxidant systems in children with asthma. Our results show that mild asthma in children is associated with significantly decreased levels of both enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant pathways. Enzymatically, levels of both extracellular superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase are decreased. Nonenyzmatically, in addition to the well known reduction in the levels of reduced glutathione, levels of the
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Supported by Hacettepe University Scientific Research Fund grants #02 02 101 020, #01 402 01 002, and #01 402 01 004.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.