Background: wheezing in infancy and early childhood is common.Distinct wheezing phenotypes exist during the first 6 years of lifeincluding transient wheezers and persistent wheezers. Airwayremodelling may play an important role in asthma pathophysiology.Transforming growth factor–beta1 (TGF-β1) is a multi- functionalcytokine that may have a critical role in the remodelling processoccurring in asthma. Objective: This case-control study was carried outto evaluate the serum TGF-β1 levels in early childhood wheezers withmatched healthy controls to detect difference between the two groups andto detect any difference between transient wheezers and persistentwheezers. Methods: sixty infants and young children presented withrecurrent wheezing and twenty age and sex matched healthy childrenincluded as controls were enrolled in this study. Patients were subdividedinto 41 early-onset asthmatics and 19 transient wheezers according to thehistorical and clinical criteria. Serum TGF-β1 and total serum IgE wereestimated using ELISA technique. Results: Mean serum TGF–β1 wassignificantly higher in early-onset asthmatics (34.76ng/ml) than intransient wheezers (17.67ng/ml) and both were higher than controls(13.13ng/ml). Conclusion: Early childhood wheezers had significantlyhigher serum TGF–beta 1 than healthy controls and early-onset asthmaticpatients had higher serum TGF–beta 1 compared to transient wheezers.