Mannose-binding lectin (mbl), one of the important components of innate immunity, can activate the lectin pathway of the complement system. After binding mannose containing carbohydrate structures of foreign antigen, mbl initiates and regulates the inflammatory responses. Asthma is a complex inflammatory disease of the lung involving many components of the immune system. Our objective was to investigate the serum mbl levels of asthmatic children in comparison with healthy controls. Serum mbl levels were determined by nephelometric assay in 72 asthmatic children (5-15 yr old) and 30 healthy age-matched controls. Mbl levels of asthmatic children were measured both during acute attack and after complete remission. There was no significant difference between the mbl levels during acute attack (median 4.1 mg/l) or quiescence of symptoms (median 3.6 mg/l). Serum mbl levels both during acute attack or quiescence of symptoms was significantly higher in asthmatic children than in the healthy controls (median 2.8 mg/l, p < 0.0001 for each). Furthermore, mbl levels of asthmatic children positively correlated with peripheral blood eosinophils (r = 0.377, p < 0.001), which is a systemic component of airway inflammation in asthma. Our findings indicate that mbl may be implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma by contributing to airway inflammation or by increasing the risk of developing asthma.

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Objectives of this study were to determine the extend of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble FasL (sFasL) at the time of diagnosis and to evaluate its prognostic relevance under chemotherapy in childhood lymphoproliferative malignancies. The authors measured the circulating sFas and sFasL by ELISA in 25 children with newly diagnosed either ALL or NHL, as well as their expression of Fas and FasL at the time of diagnosis and remission. They did not observe any statistically significant difference between the patient group and age-matched healthy controls for sFas levels, whereas sFasL concentration in study population at the time of diagnosis was significantly higher than that in control subjects (1.05 +/- 1.46 vs. 0.36 +/- 0.18 ng/mL, p = .024). At remission the authors observed a significant decrease in the sFasL levels of all patients whose sFasL concentrations were above the minimal detectable level at the time of diagnosis (p = .008). sFasL and Fas/FasL immunohistochemical staining did not have an effect on survival. sFasL may be a marker in monitoring complete remission in children with LPM.