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©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Profiles of interferon-gamma and interleukin-2 in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Malwina Rybicka-Ramos, Mirosław Markiewicz, Aleksandra Suszka-Świtek, Ryszard Wiaderkiewicz, Sylwia Mizia, Monika Dzierżak-Mietła, Krzysztof Białas
Malwina Rybicka-Ramos, Department of Hematology, Specialist Hospital No. 1 in Bytom, Bytom 41-902, Poland
Mirosław Markiewicz, Department of Hematology, University of Rzeszow, College of Medical Sciences, Institute of Medical Sciences, Rzeszów 35-315, Poland
Aleksandra Suszka-Świtek, Ryszard Wiaderkiewicz, Department of Histology and Embryology, School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice 40-752, Poland
Sylwia Mizia, Department of Population Health, Division of Epidemiology and Health Education, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław 51-618, Poland
Monika Dzierżak-Mietła, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Hematooncology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Gliwice 44-102, Poland
Krzysztof Białas, Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, SPSK-M Hospital, Katowice 40-027, Poland
Author contributions: Rybicka-Ramos M contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation and analysis, original draft preparation, project administration, and fund acquisition; Markiewicz M contributed to methodology, investigation, manuscript review and editing, supervision, and fund acquisition; Dzierzak-Mietla M and Bialas K contributed to investigation; Suszka-Świtek A, Wiaderkiewicz R, and Mizia S contributed to data curation and analysis.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice (No. KNW/0022/KB1/71/I/12).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Malwina Rybicka-Ramos, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Hematology, Specialist Hospital No. 1 in Bytom, 7 Zeromskiego Street, Bytom 41-902, Poland. malwina.rybicka@gmail.com
Received: March 8, 2022
Peer-review started: March 8, 2022
First decision: April 25, 2022
Revised: May 11, 2022
Accepted: September 21, 2022
Article in press: September 21, 2022
Published online: September 27, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) may be related to complications such as graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and infections. GvHD is a crucial and potentially fatal complication of allo-HSCT. The pathogenesis of this complication is associated with the cytokine storm.
Research motivation
There is a small amount of medical data on the cytokine profiles in patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. In this report, the cytokine level was assessed in the early period after allo-HSCT (during the first 30 d after transplantation).
Research objectives
Before, during, and after blood sampling for cytokine determination, cytokine-producing cells were not stimulated with mitogenic substances. Therefore, the obtained cytokine levels and their profiles may be regarded as those which reflect real values in patients who underwent allo-HSCT.
Research methods
We enrolled 62 patients after allo-HSCT due to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). All subjects underwent standard immunosuppressive therapy based on cyclosporin and methotrexate with addition of antilymphocyte globulin in the case of unrelated donor transplantation. Peripheral blood samples were collected from each patient at the checkpoints: Before conditioning treatment, after its completion (day -1), and after transplantation on days +2 +4, +6, +10, +20, and +30, unless death occurred earlier. The samples were not stimulated with mitogenic substances. Serum levels of IL-2 and IFN-gamma were determined using ELISA.
Research results
In the final analysis, patients were divided into four groups based on the occurrence of aGvHD and infection. Significantly higher levels of IFN-gamma were found in group II on days +20 (P = 0.014) and +30 (P = 0.008) in comparison with other groups of patients.
Research conclusions
Higher IFN-gamma levels are more related to infectious complications than the occurrence of aGvHD. Within the first 30 d after allo-HSCT, serum levels of IL-2 in patients with AML are very low and diagnostically insignificant.
Research perspectives
More studies are warranted to create a more precise cytokine profile.
