Kuk-Young Moon, PuReun-HaNeul Lee, Sung-Woo Park, Choon-Sik Park and An-Soo Jang
BMC Pulmonary Medicine 2014, 14:143 doi:10.1186/1471-2466-14-143
Published: 2 September 2014Abstract (provisional)
Background
Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) is an essential mediator of angiogenesis that establishes vascular integrity, and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) acts as its natural inhibitor. We considered that angiopoietin might be important in bronchial asthma.
Methods
In total, 35 patients with asthma and 20 healthy subjects were studied.
Results
The serum Ang-1 levels were significantly elevated in patients with asthma compared to control subjects (293.9 +/- 13.8 pg/mL vs. 248.3 +/- 16.2 pg/mL, respectively, p = 0.04). The serum Ang-2 levels were not different between the two groups. The areas under the curve (AUC) for serum angiopoietins revealed that the serum level of Ang-1 (0.68) was more sensitive and specific than the serum Ang-2 level (0.55) for differentiating between patients with asthma and control subjects. The serum Ang-1/Ang-2 ratio was correlated with the FEV1/FVC ratio (r = -0.312, p = 0.02), while serum Ang-2 was correlated with body mass index.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that the serum Ang-1 levels were higher in asthma patients compared with healthy subjects. As the Ang-1/Ang-2 ratio was related to lung function, the data suggest that serum angiopoietin is associated with lung function in patients with asthma.
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