[Effects of arsenic trioxide on apoptosis of peripheral T-lymphocytes from asthmatic patients and normal subjects in vitro].

Objective: To study the effects of arsenic trioxide on apoptosis of peripheral T-lymphocytes from asthmatic patients and normal subjects in vitro.
Methods: The T-lymphocytes were isolated from the blood of 21 asthmatic patients and 20 healthy controls and treated with arsenic trioxide and dexamethasone. Cell apoptosis was observed by fluorescence microscope and measured with flow cytometry and Cytochrome C ELISA kit.
Results: The T-lymphocytes from the asthmatic patients, when compared to those from of the healthy control, exhibited decelerated spontaneous apoptosis after a 24-hour incubation in vitro. Dexamethasone treatment significantly increased the percentage of apoptotic T-lymphocytes from both asthmatic patients and normal subjects in comparable magnitude. Arsenic trioxide treatment, in contrast, significantly increased the percentage of apoptotic T-lymphocytes from asthmatic patients, but slightly affected the cells from the control group.
Conclusions: Spontaneous apoptosis of T-lymphocytes can be decelerated in asthmatic patients, whose T-lymphocytes are more sensitive to arsenic trioxide-induced apoptosis than those of normal subjects, but the T-lymphocytes from normal subjects and asthmatic patients are equally sensitive to dexamethasone.