CagA+ H pylori infection is associated with polarization of T helper cell immune responses in gastric carcinogenesis

Table 5 Plasma cytokine contents in patients without H pylori infection (mean ± SE, pg/mL)

Pathological diagnosis	IFN-γ	IL-4	IL-12	IL-10	IL-6	IL-2
Normal mucosa (NM, n = 13)	31.83 ± 0.17	10.57 ± 0.68	80.84 ± 4.81	68.56 ± 3.87	49.53 ± 3.94	53.13 ± 1.48
Chronic gastritis (CG, n = 36)	29.10 ± 1.27	10.37 ± 0.30	68.57 ± 2.43	79.03 ± 1.64	57.66 ± 2.56	52.54 ± 1.41
Gastric atrophy (GA, n = 10)	29.06 ± 1.93	10.49 ± 0.58	51.14 ± 3.47	90.94 ± 3.63	91.08 ± 6.11	41.39 ± 2.18
Intestinal metaplasia (IM, n = 9)	28.57 ± 2.72	11.75 ± 0.61	50.97 ± 1.54	97.60 ± 3.53	96.35 ± 5.19	41.54 ± 0.99
Dysplasia (DP, n = 8)	31.59 ± 1.29	11.46 ± 0.58	43.10 ± 5.02	153.34 ± 6.12	149.92 ± 6.23	35.00 ± 2.04
Gastric cancer (GC, n = 6)	27.04 ± 2.30	11.91 ± 1.26	40.06 ± 2.08	181.36 ± 9.02	153.04 ± 6.63	30.95 ± 1.91

There was no difference in the expression of IFN-γ and IL-4 in plasma of subjects without H pylori infection among all the groups (P_all > 0.05). For IL-12, there were significant differences between CG and GA, IM, DP, and GC (P = 0.006, P = 0.009, P = 0.001, P < 0.001). For IL-10, there were significant differences between all the groups except between GA and CG and IM (P = 0.219, P = 1.000). For IL-6, there were significant differences among all the groups except between GA and IM (P = 1.000) and DP and GC (P = 1.000). For IL-2, there were significant differences between CG and GA, IM, DP, and GC (P_all < 0.001) and between IM and GC (P = 0.037).