Background: Analysis of immune markers in nasal secretions has become crucial in the study of nasal diseases. We proposed the cotton piece method, a modified method, for the collection and processing of nasal secretions.
Methods: The nasal secretions of 31 healthy control participants and 32 patients with nasal diseases were collected by the traditional sponge method and the cotton piece method, respectively. The concentrations of 14 cytokines and chemokines related to nasal diseases were detected.
Results: The properties of nasal secretions collected by the cotton piece method were more uniform than the sponge method. The concentration of IL-6 in the disease group collected by the cotton piece method was significantly higher than that in the control group (P = 0.002), and the cotton piece method could distinguish the positive detection rates of IL-1β (P = 0.031) and TNF-α (P = 0.001) between the control and disease groups. The levels of inflammatory mediators in nasal secretions could preliminarily distinguish different nasal diseases.
Conclusions: The cotton piece method is a noninvasive and reliable method for collecting nasal secretions, which is beneficial for detecting local inflammatory and immune responses of the nasal mucosa.
Keywords: Allergic rhinitis; chronic rhinosinusitis; cotton piece; cytokines; nasal secretions; sponge.