Background：Recently late phase allergic reaction, which is characterized by accumulation of inflammatory cells including eosinophils, has been known to be the mechanism for chronic allergic symptoms. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of the vasculars endothelial adhesion molecules which plays an important role for the inflammatory reaction by binding with the receptors on the surface of leukocytes.


Materials and Method
s : The immunostaining with antibodies against vascular endothelial adhesion molecules and modified Wright's stain for eosinophils were performed on the inferior turbinate mucosa obtained from 23 patients with perennial allergic rhinitis and 14 nonallergic control persons, and compared the two groups for the expression of adhesion molecules and counts of eosinophils.


Results
: The expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) was significantly higher in the allergic group than in the nonallergic group (median : 32% vs 10%, p=0.04). Eselectin revealed minimal expression in both groups and didn't show significant difference between the two groups. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was the most prominently expressed adhesion molecule both in the vascular endothelial cells and in the epithelial cells of the nasal mucosa, however, there was no significant difference between the two groups (median : 40 vs 43%). Eosinophil counts per mm² of tissue were significantly higher in the allergic group than in the nonallergic groups (median : 4 vs 0, p=0.03). The expression of VCAM-1 showed significant correlation with that of ICAM-1 (p=0.02). Also the expression of VCAM-1 revealed some correlation with eosinophil counts, but failed to reach the statistical significance (p=0.06). 


Conclusion
: We observed that allergic nasal mucosa showed significantly higher number of infiltrated eosinophils and higher expression of VCAM-1 as compared to nonallergic controls, which, together with the finding of correlation of the two components, could partly explain the selective mechanism for eosinophils in the allergic  inflammatory reaction. The constitutive and prominent expression of ICAM-1 in the vascular endothelial cells and epithelial cells of the nasal mucosa suggests that ICAM-1 play an important role in the migration of extravasated leukocytes into the nasal secretion as well as in the transendothelial migration.