Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease  2001;11(2):130-137

Changes of Serum Interleukin-18 Levels in Kawasaki Disease.

Gwang Cheon JANG 1 ; Seung Yeon LEE ; Dong Soo KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Kawasaki disease; interleukin-18; TNF-alpha

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

PURPOSE: Interleukin 18(IL-18) is a potent proinflammatory cytokine which induces IFN-gamma, GM-CSF, TNF-alpha and IL-1, to activate killing by lymphocytes, and to up-regulate the expression of certain chemokine receptors. Kawasaki disease (KD) is an inflammatory disease which increases serum levels of inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-alpha and IL-6. This study was performed to examine the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokine IL-18 in KD. METHODS: Twenty patients with KD and 10 healthy children were enrolled in this study. Serum levels of IL-18 and TNF-alpha from the patients with acute and subacute stage of KD and normal controls were measured by using ELISA. Acute phase reactants such as ESR and C-reactive protein were measured during the acute stage of the disease. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in serum levels of IL-18 measured at the acute stage of KD(818.0+/-253.4 pg/mL) compared with those of subacute stage (367.7+/-140.1 pg/mL) (P<0.01) and normal controls(348.6+/-122.9 pg/mL)(P<0.01). However, the increase of IL-18 was not correlated with the increase of TNF-alpha(R=-0.156, P=0.488) or other acute phase reactants. CONCLUSION: The results showed that IL-18 was increased during the acute stage of KD, but the increase of IL-18 was not directly correlated with TNF-alpha. This results suggest that Il-18 is not a useful marker to estimate the severity of inflammation in KD.