Abstract
The prevalence of obesity in children has dramatically increased in the last few decades, and obesity has also emerged as an important risk factor for asthma. Innate mechanisms have been shown to be involved in both diseases, particularly through the recently described innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), in which ILC3s have been linked to obesity both in human and in murine models. The aim of this study was to explore whether being overweight in asthmatic children was associated with elevated circulating ILC3 or elevated messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of RORC, IL-17A, and IL-22. Our results showed significantly elevated ILC3 frequencies in overweight asthmatic children compared with nonoverweight controls based on the detection of Lin+CD127+IL-23R+ cells by flow cytometry. Moreover, elevated ILC3 frequencies positively correlated with the mRNA expression of RORC which has been identified as a transcription factor of ILC3s. The relative mRNA expression level of IL-17A was also upregulated in overweight compared to nonoverweight children, as was the relative mRNA level of IL-22. However, there were no correlations between ILC3 frequencies or the expressions of RORC, IL-17A, and IL-22 and asthma severity. These results suggested that childhood obesity is an independent factor that is associated with an elevated frequency of circulating ILC3s and higher expressions of RORC, IL-22, and IL-17A.