Decreased Interleukin-10 Responses in Children with Severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia

Shenggang Ding; Xiaowu Wang; Wei Chen; Yuan Fang; Boyu Liu; Yan Liu; Guanghe Fei; Linding Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146397

Decreased Interleukin-10 Responses in Children with Severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 11;11(1):e0146397. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146397. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Shenggang Ding¹, Xiaowu Wang^{2

3}, Wei Chen², Yuan Fang², Boyu Liu², Yan Liu², Guanghe Fei⁴, Linding Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
² Department of Microbiology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.
³ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Fuyang Second People's Hospital, Fuyang, Anhui, China.
⁴ Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.

Abstract

Several cytokines may play roles in the immunological pathogenesis of mycoplasmal pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae. In this study, we investigated serum cytokine profiles in children with mycoplasmal pneumonia. The serum levels of interleukin (IL)-8, IL-10, and IL-18 were examined using ELISA kits in 34 patients with M. pneumoniae infection (Group 1, 11 with severe mycoplasmal pneumonia; Group 2, 13 with mild mycoplasmal pneumonia; Group 3, 10 with asthma) and 32 age-matched, non-infected controls. The serum levels of IL-8, IL-10, and IL-18 increased significantly in patients with mycoplasmal pneumonia compared with those in controls (P<0.01). The serum levels of IL-10 decreased significantly in Group 1 compared with those in Group 2 (P<0.01). The serum levels of IL-18 increased significantly in Group 1 compared with those in Group 2 (P<0.01). The serum levels of IL-10 and IL-18 decreased significantly in 10 M. pneumoniae-infected patients with asthma compared with those in 24 M. pneumoniae-infected patients without asthma (P<0.01). We examined the level of interleukins (IL-8, IL-10 and IL-18) after the patients started therapy. The data showed that IL-18 were lower after therapy (P<0.01). Collectively, our data suggested that these cytokines may be involved in the pathogenesis of mycoplasmal pneumonia.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
Asthma / microbiology
Asthma / physiopathology
C-Reactive Protein / metabolism
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child, Preschool
Cytokines / blood
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Erythrocyte Count
Female
Humans
Infant
Interleukin-10 / blood*
Interleukin-8 / blood
Lymphocyte Count
Male
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
Pneumonia, Mycoplasma / blood*
Pneumonia, Mycoplasma / immunology*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
CXCL8 protein, human
Cytokines
IL10 protein, human
Interleukin-8
Interleukin-10
C-Reactive Protein

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81271837, 81571963) and Natural Science Foundation Key project of Anhui Education Department (KJ2012A161, KJ2015A020). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.