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Properdin in childhood and its association with wheezing and atopy
Author(s) -
Staley Kathryn Grace,
Kuehni Claudia Elisabeth,
Strippoli MariePierre Françoise,
McNally Teresa,
Silverman Michael,
Stover Cordula
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
pediatric allergy and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.269
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1399-3038
pISSN - 0905-6157
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3038.2009.00979.x
Subject(s) - medicine , atopy , properdin , immunology , asthma , pediatrics , antibody , complement system
Staley KG, Kuehni CE, Strippoli MPF, McNally T, Silverman M, Stover C. Properdin in childhood and its association with wheezing and atopy.
Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010: 21: e787–e791.
© 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Properdin, a serum glycoprotein, is an important component of innate immunity, the only known positive regulator of complement, acting as an initiation point for alternative pathway activation. As an X‐linked protein, we hypothesized that properdin may play a modulatory role in the pathogenesis of viral wheeze in children, which tends to be more common and more severe in boys. We aimed to determine properdin levels in a community‐based paediatric sample, and to assess whether levels of properdin were associated with childhood wheeze phenotypes and atopy. We studied 137 school‐children aged 8–12 yrs, a nested sample from a cohort study. Properdin was measured by a commercial enzyme‐linked immunoabsorbant assay. We assessed wheeze by questionnaire, validated it by a nurse‐led interview and performed skin prick tests and a methacholine challenge in all children. Forty children (29%) reported current wheeze. Serum properdin levels ranged between 18 and 40 μg/ml. Properdin was not associated with age, gender, atopy, bronchial responsiveness, current wheeze (neither the viral wheeze nor multiple‐trigger wheeze phenotype) or severity of wheeze, but was slightly lower in south Asian (median 21.8 μg/ml) compared with white children (23.3 μg/ml; p = 0.006). Our data make it unlikely that properdin deficiency is common in healthy children or that levels of properdin are a major risk factor for wheeze or atopy.