Analysis of serum cytokine levels in primary biliary cirrhosis patients and healthy adults

✍ Scribed by Masayoshi Yamashiki; Yoshitane Kosaka; Akira Nishimura; Shozo Watanabe; Minoru Nomoto; Fumihiro Ichida

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 102 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-8013
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2825(1998)12:2<77::aid-jcla1>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

By using commercially available ELISA kits, serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels in healthy adults, and the levels of various cytokines in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis or chronic viral liver diseases, were investigated. IL-6 levels of healthy subjects were distributed in a wide range, and the distribution pattern was similar to those of the patients. TNF-α levels tended to be low in females in their 30s, but there were no abnormalities in the patients. Characteristic findings, in the primary biliary cirrhosis pa-tients, were an increase of IFN-γ and IL-2 levels, and a decrease of GM-CSF levels (P<0.05). IL-8 levels were higher in the patients than in the healthy subjects (P<0.05), and the increase was remarkable in chronic viral liver disease patients. We believe that measurement of serum cytokine levels as a clinical immunological test is highly useful. Further development of simpler, more rapid, and more sensitive analysis methods is desired.