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Interleukin-8 in Takayasu's arteritis: Plasma levels and relationship with disease activity

N.K. Tripathy¹, N. Sinha², S. Nityanand³

Departments of Immunology¹, Cardiology² and Hematology³, Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow, India.

ABSTRACT
Objective
To investigate the plasma levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in Takayasu's arteritis (TA) and their relationship with disease activity.

Methods
IL-8 levels were detected by quantitative enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) in the plasma of 53 TA patients, 25 age/sex-matched, healthy controls and of 10 serially fol-lowed up active TA patients on immunosuppressive therapy.

Results
Significantly increased levels of IL-8 were observed in TA patients (26.32±48.96 pg/ml) compared to controls (6.0 ±2.45 pg/ml) (p=0.0006) and in patients with active TA (55.0 ±71.43 pg/ml) compared to those with an inac-tive disease (8.94 ±6.35 pg/ml) (p = 0.0001). The increased levels of the chemokine were present in 37% (20/53) of the patients compared to 8% (2/25) of the controls (p <0.01) and in 80% (16/20) of patients with active TA compared to 12% (4/33) of those with an inactive disease (p<0.0001). In the fol-low-up study, the plasma levels of IL-8 were normalized in 6/10 of the patients and the disease in 5 of these 6 patients was also observed to undergo remission.

Conclusion
These results suggest that IL-8 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of TA.

Key words
Interleukin-8, Takayasu's arteritis, disease activity.

Please address correspondence to: Dr S. Nityanand, MD, PhD, Professor and Head, Department of Hematology, SGPGIMS, Raebareli Road, Lucknow-226014, India.
E-mail: soniya@sgpgi.ac.in