RESEARCH ARTICLE
In Vitro Effects of Budesonide on Eosinophil-Basophil Lineage Commitment
Michael M Cyr†, 1, Adrian J Baatjes†, 1, Sandra C Dorman§, 1, Lynn Crawford1, Roma Sehmi1, Ronan Foley1, Rafeul Alam2, Paul O’ Byrne1, Judah A Denburg*, 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 60
Last Page: 66
Publisher ID: TORMJ-2-60
DOI: 10.2174/1874306400802010060
Article History:
Received Date: 3/3/2008Revision Received Date: 16/4/2008
Acceptance Date: 27/5/2008
Electronic publication date: 13/6/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
IL-5 is the primary cytokine that stimulates the production and survival of eosinophils and basophils from progenitor cells. The inhaled glucocorticoid, budesonide, has been shown to exert a therapeutic effect via suppression of eosinophil/basophil progenitors in vivo. Since various steroids have exhibited the ability to enhance eosinophil/basophil progenitor differentiation, we examined the effects of budesonide in vitro. Bone marrow and cord blood samples were obtained and cultured in the presence of IL-5 alone or IL-5 plus budesonide. Eosinophil/basophil colony-forming units were enumerated from cultured nonadherent mononuclear cells and from purified CD34+ cells. CD34+ cells with and without budesonide were also examined for up-regulation of ERK1/2, MAPK and GATA-1 using real time-PCR. Results: i) up-regulation of eosinophil/basophil colony-forming units is due to the direct effects of budesonide on IL-5-stimulated progenitors; ii) GATA-1 is likely involved in the early amplification of eosinophil/basophil progenitor commitment leading to increased differentiation. A potential transcriptional pathway has been identified which may mediate the effects of budesonide on eosinophil/basophil lineage commitment.