The effect of daily budesonide therapy on IL-10 in a murine model of asthma

Abstract

Rationale IL-10 is an immunomodulatory cytokine that has been shown to decrease airway inflammation with a concomitant increase in airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR). There is little data available on the effect of daily budesonide therapy on the levels of IL-10 with regards to inflammation and AHR. Hypothesis Daily budesonide therapy will 1) decrease inflammation along with an increase in IL-10 2) decrease AHR with a decrease in IL-10. Objective To determine the effect of daily budesonide therapy and IL-10 on markers of inflammation and AHR. Methods C57/Black 6 mice were sensitized with ovalbumin (OVA), divided into two groups and received: (1) nebulized budesonide (20 ug) once a day for 4 weeks (BDS) (2) no treatment for 4 weeks. Normal mice were also maintained as additional controls. Samples were collected at weekly intervals for 4 weeks at the time of sacrifice for eosinophil peroxidase activity (EPO), lung histology, serum IgE and IL-10 levels. AHR to methacholine (Mch) challenge was evaluated at the same intervals. Data were analyzed to compare sensitized untreated group with the normal or BDS treated group using student t test. Results BDS therapy resulted in: 1) a significant decrease in IL-10 levels, EPO, serum IgE, and lung inflammation without Mch challenge 2) a decrease in IL-10 levels without a decrease in AHR with Mch challenge. Conclusions BDS therapy resulted in a decrease in inflammation but without a decrease in AHR. We did not find an immunomodulatory effect of IL-10 on inflammation or AHR with daily BDS therapy in a murine model of asthma.