Objective      To determine the effects of steroid therapy and acute exacerbation of asthma on the subtypes and phenotypes in induced sputum inflammatory cells from asthma patients.       Methods      Clinical data on medical history and induced sputum of 104 asthma out- and in-patients from our institute during January 2011 to June 2011 were collected and retrospectively analyzed.       Results      There were 42.3% of acute patients found with neutrophil

ic phenotype

26.9% with eosinophilic phenotype

15.4% with paucigranulocytic phenotype

and 15.4% with mixed granulocytic subtypes. In non-acute asthma patients group

50.0% patients had the eosinophilic phenotype

19.2% had paucigranulocytic phenotype

19.2% had mixed granulocytic subtypes

and 11.5% had neutrophilic phenotype. The major subtypes of sputum inflammatory cells were neutrophilic [(65.2±19.3)% and (54.4±20.5)%

]

and eosinophilic phenotypes [(3.8±7.4)% and (9.9±23.9)%

]

in acute and non-acute asthma patients

respectively. There was no obvious change in the subtypes and phenotypes of induced sputum inflammatory cells from acute asthma group before and after steroid treatment. After treatment with glucocorticoid in non-acute asthma group

neutrophil percentage was raised from (55.5±20.5)% to (68.9±19.3)%

and proportion of eosinophilic phenotype was reduced from (14.7±20.1) % to (4.6±5.6)%. There existed significant negative correlation between them（r=-0.66

P

0.05）. Proportion of neutrophilic phenotype was also raised (

P

0.05).       Conclusion      Both of acute exacerbation of asthma and inhaled corticosteroid therapy impact asthma inflammatory phenotypes and increase neutrophils in induced sputum.