Local Expression of Mucosal YKL-40; Correlation of YKL-40 with Clinical Manifestations and Immunopathogenesis of Moderate/Severe Persistent Allergic Rhinitis Patients

ABSTRACTYKL-40 is an important protein that plays a critical role in chronic inflammation in hypersensitivity disease. In this study, the expression of YKL-40 was investigated among patients with moderate/severe persistent allergic rhinitis (M/S PAR), patients with mild (M) PAR and healthy individuals. Moreover, the association between YKL-40 and immunopathogenesis of M/S PAR was meticulously surveyed. For this purpose, surgical samples were tested by real-time polymerase chain reaction to evaluate YKL-40 mRNA expression. The presence and location of YKL-40 protein in the tissue samples were determined by immunohistochemistry. Additionally, we measured the number of eosinophils per field in the tissue samples, blood eosinophils, total serum IgE, specific serum IgE, total nasal syndrome score (TNSS) and YKL-40 serum levels. The data indicated that production of YKL-40 in patients with M/S PAR increased significantly when compared with the control group. Furthermore, local production of YKL-40 correlated wi...