Involvement of inferior turbinate mucosa in chronic sinusitis – localization of T‐cell subset

Background: In chronic sinusitis (CS), different subsets of leukocytes are involved in development of persistent inflammation of the nasal mucosa. The localization and differentiation of these infiltrating lymphocytes may help us to understand the inflammatory interactions in the epithelium, lamina propria, and seromucous glands of the nasal mucosa in CS. Methods: We examined frozen sections of inferior turbinates from 14 patients with nonallergic CS and 10 normal nonallergic controls. We used the avidin‐biotin‐peroxidase (ABC) technique with monoclonal antibodies against CD3 (total T cells), CD4 (T‐helper/inducer cells), CD8 (T‐suppressor/cytotoxic cells), CD22 (B cells), CD56 (natural killer cells), elastase (neutrophil granulocytes), eosinophil cationic protein (eosinophil granulocytes), and CD68 (macrophages). Results: We found significant increases (P