Proand anti-inflammatory cytokines in children with various clinical forms of chronic glomerulonephritis

Aim. Study of the level of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, their relationship and changes, depending on the activity of various variants of chronic glomerulonephritis in children. Methods. 104 children with nephrotic form of chronic glomerulonephritis (group 1), 9 children with hematuric form (group 2) and 88 children with mixed form (group 3) were examined. The average age of children was 10.63±3.88 years. The remission was observed in 130 (45.1%), exacerbation - in 158 (54.9%) patients. The concentration of proinflammatory (interleukin-1β, -8, tumor necrosis factor α, interferon γ) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-10 and -4) was determined in the blood by ELISA. Results. A significant increase in the levels of interleukin-1β and -8, tumor necrosis factor α, interferon γ was revealed. The index of cytokines in nephrotic and mixed variant was 2.6 standard units, in hematuric form - 2.5 standard units. More pronounced imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines was revealed in nephrotic and mixed forms of chronic glomerulonephritis. Regardless of the form, an increase was revealed in the ratio of interleukin-1β/interleukin-4 (p <0.05), tumor necrosis factor α/interleukin-4 and tumor necrosis factor α/interleukin-10 (p <0.01). Conclusion. Children with different clinical variants of chronic glomerulonephritis were found to have imbalance of cytokines with the shift towards predominance of proinflammatory cytokines; the most pronounced differences were observed in the content of interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor α; both in exacerbation and remission phases cytokine index is higher than 1 which is indicative of active inflammatory process.