Abstract OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of interleukin (IL)-27 on INF and IL-4 activities in children with asthma. METHODS: The levels of IFN-γ and IL-4 in culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 23 asthmatic children were measured using ELISA. PBMCs were cultured with recombinant IL-27（5 ng/mL or 0.5 ng/mL）for 12 hrs in vitro. RESULTS: IFN-γ levels in both 5 ng/mL and 0.5 ng/mL IL-27 treatment groups (85.9±12.2 and 8.9±2.3 μg/L, respectively) increased compared with those in the cytokine stimulated control group (P＜0.01, P＜0.05 respectively). The group treated with 5 ng/mL IL-27 had decreased significantly IL-4 levels compared with the cytokine stimulated control group (15.0±1.9 μg/L vs 77.0±15.6 μg/L; P＜0.01). CONCLUSIONS: IL-27 may be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. It may affect Th1/Th2 cell activities and might be a new option for the treatment of asthma.［Chin J Contemp Pediatr, 2010, 12 (7):521-523］
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