Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a noninfectious inflammatory response in nasal mucosa caused by allergens, which is contacted by a specific individual. The immune imbalance of Th1/Th2 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AR. In?terleukin (IL)-33, the novel cytokine of IL-1 family, is an important regulatory factor of allergic diseases, autoimmune diseas?es and various inflammatory diseases. IL-33 is a kind of alarm, which is mainly secreted and released by damaged tissues and cells, especially impaired epithelial cells and endothelial cells. IL-33 binding to its receptor ST2L can activate a variety of immune cells to produce Th2 cytokines, precipitating and maintaining Th2 polarization, increasing AR immune inflamma?tion, which is the new target of AR in research and treatment. In this article, we have done a brief overview for the biological functions of IL-33 and its receptor ST2L and the research progress in the AR.

Objective To investigate the change of leptin,nitric oxide (NO) and interleukin-6 (IL- 6) levels in serum of children with Kawasaki disease (KD) and the possible relationship between leptin,NO and IL-6 levels,explore the role of leptin,NO and IL-6 in the pathogenesis of KD.Methods Fourty-five children with KD were studied.Twelve of them had coronary artery lesions and 33 had non-coronary artery lesions;thirty healthy children and 18 children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis or Henoch-Scholeion purpuru were enrolled as control subjects.Serum was collected from each patients during acute stage of KD and remission.Leptin,NO and IL-6 contents were detected by radioimmuno-assay and spectrophotometry and enzyme-linked immunoserbent assay.Meanwhile,C-reactive protein (CRP) were examined.Results ① The concentrations of serum leptin,NO,IL-6 and CRP in children with KD were significantly higher in the acute stage of KD than those at clinical remission and those of the normal control group (q=26.24,25.23; 21.38,31.30;35.37,33.68;16.32,15.66;P＜0.01,respectively).No significant differences in serum leptin, IL-6 and CRP were found between the clinical remission group and the normal control group (q=1.02,1.04, 0.61,P＞0.05,respectively);The concentrations of serum NO were significantly higher at clinical remission group than those of the normal control group (q=11.31,P＜0.01).② There was no significant difference in the concentrations of serum leptin,IL-6 and CRP at the acute stage of KD than those in patients with and without coronary artery lesions (q=1.17,1.92,1.60,P＞0.05).The concentrations of serum NO were significantly higher at the acute stage of KD with coronary artery lesions than those of KD without coronary artery lesions (q=6.91,P＜0.01).③ The concentrations of serum leptin in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis or Henoch-Scholeion purpura were signifietantly higher than those of the normal control group (t=13.26,P＜ 0.01).No significant differences in serum leptin were found between children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis or Henoch-Seholeion purpura and children with KD (t=1.28,P＞0.05).④ Correlation was found between serum leptin values and levels of the following parameters (P＜0.01);NO (r=0.69),IL-6 (r=0.55),CRP (r=0.42).However,there were no associations between leptin and leukocytes (r=0.21,P＞0.05) or serum albumin level (r=-0.24,P＞0.05).Association was found between serum NO and IL-6 (r=0.45,P＜0.01)or CRP(r=0.49,P＜0.01).Conclusion These results suggest that leptin,NO and IL-6 may have a role in the immunoinflammatory process of KD,especially in the acute phase.Further in vivo and in vitro studies are needed to establish the roles of leptin,NO and IL-6 in the pathogenesis of KD.

Objective To study the expression of plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) in children with acute phase Kawasaki disease (KD), and investigate its value for early prediction of coronary artery lesions in KD. Methods Totally 80 children with KD were collected. Children were divided into four groups by the results of echocardiogram of coronary artery in different periods: CAL1 group (children with coronary artery lesions (CAL+) both in acute and sub-acute phase, 8 cases), CAL2 group (children with CAL+in acute phase but recovery normal (CAL-) in sub-acute phase, 10 cases), NCAL1 group (children with CAL-in acute phase but occur CAL+ in sub-acute phase, 10 cases) and NCAL2 group (children with CAL- both in acute and sub-acute phase, 52 cases). The serum samples (before the use of intravenous immunoglobulin) were collected in acute phase. Twenty healthy controls and twenty fever controls were enrolled into the study, and their serum samples were collected. OxLDL was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). They were compared using ANOVA, pairwise comparison LSD-t test. And ROC curve analysis was used to determine the threshold. Results Compared with the control groups,plasma oxLDL levels were higher in children with KD, both CA+and CAL-[(15.0±3.3) mU/L, (12.3±3.5) mU/L vs (9.2±2.2) mU/L, (8.0±2.3) mU/L, F=20.435, P<0.05]. Plasma oxLDL levels were increased more significantly in children with CAL+ than children with CAL- in KD [(15.0 ±3.3) mU/L vs (12.3 ±3.5) mU/L, t=2.28, P=0.002]. There was significant difference in the concentration of oxLDL between the groups of Kawasaki disease (F=5.068, P=0.003). Plasma oxLDL levels were significantly higher in the NCAL1 group than those in the NCAL2 group [(14.5 ±3.8) mU/L vs (11.9±3.3) mU/L, t=2.29, P=0.02], but there were no statistically significant difference between the NCAL1 group and CAL1 or CAL2 group [(14.5±3.8) mU/L vs (15.9±3.9) mU/L, (14.5±3.8) mU/L vs (14.2±2.7) mU/L, t=0.73, 0.20;P=0.41, 0.84]. ROCs analysis indicated that oxLDL≥13.83 mU/L, could be the threshold for the prediction of coronary artery lesions with the sensitivity of 0.607 and a specificity of 0.75. Conclusion OxLDL plays an important role in coronary artery lesions in KD. The coronary endothelial dysfunction is earlier than coronary dilatation, and oxLDL is expected to become a reliable early predictor of coronary artery lesions in KD.