Serum levels of interleukin-38 and interleukin-1β in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease in children

Abstract:

Objective To study the expression of serum cytokines, interleukin-38 (IL-38) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease (KD) in children and the association of IL-38 and IL-1β with inflammatory response in the acute phase and the development of coronary artery lesion (CAL).Methods A total of 40 children with KD who were hospitalized in the hospital between July 2015 and June 2016 were enrolled, with 21 children in the CAL group and 19 in the non-CAL (NCAL) group. Thirty healthy children and 19 children with infection and pyrexia, who were matched for sex and age, were enrolled as healthy control group and pyrexia control group respectively. ELISA was used to measure the serum levels of IL-38 and IL-1β in the 40 children in the acute phase of KD. Spearman's rank correlation analysis was used to investigate the correlations of IL-1β and IL-38 with interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), procalcitonin (PCT), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (TC).Results The serum level of IL-38 in the children in the acute phase of KD was signifcantly lower than that in the healthy control group (P < 0.05), but signifcantly higher than that in the pyrexia control group (P < 0.05). There was no signifcant difference in the level of IL-38 between the CAL and NCAL groups (P > 0.05). The children in the acute phase of KD had a signifcantly higher level of IL-1β than the healthy control group (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between this group and the pyrexia control group (P > 0.05). There was also no signifcant difference in the level of IL-1β between the CAL and NCAL groups (P > 0.05). Serum IL-1β and IL-38 levels were not correlated with serum levels of CRP, ESR, PCT, IL-6, and NT-ProBNP or blood lipids (TG and TC) (P > 0.05).Conclusions IL-38 is involved in an inflammatory response in the acute phase of KD and may exert an anti-inflammatory effect, which is opposite to the effect of IL-1β to promote inflammatory response. However, there is no signifcant correlation between these two cytokines and the development of CAL in KD.