Il-6 Levels in Induced Sputum and Serum in Acute Attack and Stable Period of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Introduction: COPD is a disease characterized by chronic inflammation in the airways and increased systemic inflammation. Interleukin-6 is a major immune and inflammatory mediator. Objective: To examine the level of IL-6, an inflammatory mediator, in induced sputum and serum of patients with COPD in the acute attack and stable period. Materials and Methods: Thirty consecutive patients diagnosed with COPD were included in the study. In the attack and stable period, IL-6 levels were studied in the induced sputum and blood taken simultaneously. Twenty-one patients who did not have any pathological findings in terms of chest diseases were selected as the control group. ELISA kit (Bender MedSystems, Vienna, Austria) was used for IL-6 measurements and values were measured as pg/ml. Mann-Whitney U test was used for intergroup comparisons and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was used for intragroup comparisons. Results: The serum IL-6 level in the patient group was 6.66±7.49 pg/ml in the acute attack, while it was 3.08±4.07 pg/ml in the stable period. This decrease was found to be statistically significant (p<0.005). Sputum IL-6 level did not show a statistically significant change in acute attack (3.54±2.75 pg/ml) and stable period (3.44±6.03 pg/ml). In our study, there was a negative correlation between sputum IL-6 level in acute attack and COPD year (p: 0.02, r: -0.42). A positive correlation was found between acute attack serum IL-6 level ( p:0.007,r:0.479) and stable period sputum IL-6 levels (p:0.017, r:0.429) and the number of acute attacks. Conclusion: The high serum IL-6 level in COPD attack shows that the immune response is not only in the respiratory system, but also systemically, and supports that COPD is a systemic inflammatory disease. In our study, we could not detect any contribution of IL-6 level in induced sputum. Studies involving larger numbers of cases and evaluating multiple markers are needed.

Keywords

• chronic obsturictive pulmonary disease
• ınduced
• sputum
• Il-6

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