Objective: To investigate the relationship between the expression level of basophil surface molecules in patients with asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap (ACO) in acute period and in remission period. Methods: Totally 32 healthy people and respectively 14 cases of acute and remission ACO patients admitted to The Third Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University were collected in the study. By collecting the venous blood from the elbow

the basophils were obtained by flow cytometry using three gating strategies. In order to compare the expression levels of basophil surface molecules (CD63

CD203c

FcεRI) between patients and healthy groups at different stages

the results and disease states were retrospectively studied. Results: The Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD63 in acute basophil was significantly different from that in healthy group (P<0.05)

and there was no significant difference in CD203c and FcεRI in acute basophil compared with that in healthy group. The MFI of CD63 and FcεRI in the remission phase was significantly different from that in the healthy group (P<0.05)

and the MFI of CD203c in the remission phase was not significantly different from that in the healthy group (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in the MFI of CD63

CD203c and FcεRI in the basophil between the acute phase and the remission phase. The MFI of CCR3+

CCR3+/CD123+HLA-DR- and CD123+HLA-DR- in acute and remission stages was significantly different from that in healthy groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: The expression of CD63 and FcεRI on the surface of basophil in the ACO patients is enhanced

suggesting that basophil is involved in the pathogenesis of ACO

and the detection of its surface molecular expression is suggestive to the judgment of ACO condition.