The relationship between serum ACE activity and total IgE levels in patients with bronchial asthma.

Pulmonary endothelium takes part in the metabolization of some products such as prostaglandins, norepinefrine, serotonin, bradikinin and angiotensin I. Angiotensin I is the substrate for Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE). It is known that greatest production site of ACE is the pulmonary endothelium. A lot of studies have been done for determining the levels of ACE in various lung diseases. It has been observed that serum ACE activity is increased in granulomatous diseases such as sarcoidosis and berylliosis. In patients with bronchial carcinoma, serum ACE activity is found to be decreased. There are some papers about the significant changes in serum ACE activities in asthmatic patients. We determined the activity of ACE and total IgE levels at the serum of 40 asthmatic patients and 20 healthy subjects. Among 40 patients 20 of them were mild asthmatic and they developed symptoms only during the attacks. The remainder 20 patients were chronic asthmatics and all the time they had the symptoms of dyspnea, wheezing and coughing. Serum ACE activity was found 25.5 +/- 11.77 U in the control group, 22.8 +/- 8.04 U in mild asthmatic group and 16.6 +/- 6.13 U in chronic asthmatic group. When compared with control group serum ACE levels found to be significantly decreased in chronic asthmatic group. Also a weak but significant correlation was found between serum total IgE levels and ACE activity in the chronic asthmatic group. These findings suggest that there is a relation between ACE and Total IgE production.