IL4 and asthma: As illustrated in Fig. 3, compared with healthy controls, the baseline ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 (1.00 ± 0.59 versus 0.47 ± 0.31,p < 0.001; 1.00 ± 0.59 versus 0.75 ± 0.55, p < 0.001) and IFN-γ/IL-5 (2.05 ± 1.45 versus 0.83 ± 0.55, p < 0.001; 2.05 ± 1.45 versus 1.29 ± 0.82, p < 0.001) were significantly lower in the two asthma groups.