Abstract : Glucocorticoids reduce in vivo the number of eosinophils and are effective in treatment of blood and tissue hypereosinophilia. Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid known to induce in vitro apoptosis of eosinophils of healthy donors, and apoptosis may be a mechanism induced by glucocorticoids to reduce eosinophilia. Here we confirm that dexamethasone exerts a pro-apoptotic effect on eosinophils isolated from healthy subjects but that dexamethasone is not always a pro-apoptotic agent towards eosinophils from hypereosinophilic patients. Implications of these results in the resistance of some patients to a treatment by glucocorticoids are discussed.
F Debierre-Grockiego, I Leduc, L. Prin, V Gouilleux-Gruart. Dexamethasone Inhibits Apoptosis of Eosinophils Isolated from Hypereosinophilic Patients. Immunobiology, Elsevier, 2001, 204 (4), pp.517-523. ⟨10.1078/0171-2985-00060⟩. ⟨hal-02425314⟩