Study of the blood cytokine profile in newborn infants with a fatal outcome of diseases accompanied by a systemic inflammatory response

To study a role of a systemic anti-inflammatory response (SIR) in the determination of a fatal outcome in newborn infants with severe intrauterine infection, the authors examined 65 babies with the manifestation of SIR during the first day of life. Among them, the disease ended in death in 16 (Group 1) infants and clinical resolution in 49 (Group 2). A control group (Group 3) consisted of 23 infants from a group at risk for intrauterine infection, whose early neonatal period was without complications. The blood cytokine profile was studied by enzyme immunoassay in the neonates on the first day of life and repeatedly in Groups 1 and 2 patients at the end of the first month of life. In the neonates with SIR, the content of interleukins (IL) 8 and 10 was much higher than that in the controls. There was an increase in IL- and IL-10 levels in Group 1 babies at the onset of a fatal outcome and their higher content on repeated blood sampling in surviving neonates, which indicates the inability of a compensatory anti-inflammatory response to stop the progression of SIR. On the contrary, the level of transforming growth factor-β1 in dead neonates tended to decrease over time, which suggests immune response dysregulation and may be associated with the development of a fatal outcome.

systemic inflammatory response, systemic anti-inflammatory response, systemic fetal inflammatory response, interleukin-8, interleukin-10, transforming growth factor-β1, intrauterine infection