Assessment of the relationship between the levels of exhaled
eicosanoids, FEV1, and FeNO with steroid responsiveness
To assess whether the levels of exhaled eicosanoids varied during
exacerbation and after convalescence, the levels of the exhaled
eicosanoids, FeNO and FEV1 in asthmatic children (N=75;
Supplementary Table S1) at acute exacerbation and convalescence stages
were measured. As shown in Fig. 2, while the level of FeNO was not at
variance between these two stages (Fig. 2A), there was a significant
enhancement in the level of FEV1 (Fig. 2B; p
<0.001), and 15-HETE (Fig. 2C, p<0.001), and a
significant reduction in the TXB2 (Fig. 2D,
p<0.05) level, while, as a group, the levels of
LTB4, LTE4, LXA4 and
PGE2 did not reveal significant difference (Supplemental
Fig. S2) before and after prednisone treatment. Furthermore, when the
respective levels of each eicosanoid species were stratified into those
at the 30th percentile, significant changes were particularly noted for
those with higher initial levels of both 15-HETE and
TXB2 at the exacerbation phase (Fig. 3); also,
significant decreases for exhaled LTB4,
LTE4, LXA4, and PGE2were noted (all with p<0.001; Supplemental Fig. S3) for those
at the top 30 percentile.