Assessment of dynamic thiol/disulfide homeostasis in patients with asthma

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease and oxidative stress is an important component in airway inflammation. This study aims to investigate dynamic thiol/disulfide homeostasis in patients with asthma. Methods: A total of 103 subjects, including 56 patients with asthma and 47 healthy controls, of similar age and gender were included in the study. The native thiol, total thiol and disulfide levels and the disulfide-native thiol, disulfide-total thiol and native thiol-total thiol ratios were analyzed and compared between the asthma and control groups using a novel automatized spectrophotometric assay. Results: The levels of native thiol (p <0.001), total thiol (p <0.001) and disulfide (p <0.001) were significantly lower and the C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (p <0.001) were significantly higher in patients with asthma when compared with those in the control group. A negative correlation was detected between CRP levels and native thiol, total thiol and disulfide levels (p <0.05). A significant positive correlation was detected between forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) levels and native thiol and total thiol levels (p <0.01). Conclusions: The thiol/disulfide homeostasis parameters may be used as novel oxidative stress markers in asthma but further studies are needed to investigate the role of thiol/disulfide homeostasis in asthma.