Blood cytokines in children with erosive gastritis

Aim: To evaluate the cytokine profile of blood serum in children with erosive gastritis depending on the activity of the inflammatory process, bacterial invasion of H. pylori and family predisposition to peptic ulcer disease. Gastroscopy was performed with the collection of biopsy material from the gastric mucosa in 168 children aged 7-17 years with gastroenterological complaints. Subsequently, a morphological examination of biopsy specimens confirmed the diagnosis of gastritis in all examined patients and determined H. pylori invasion. The content of cytokines in the blood serum (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, IL-1β, IFNα, TNFα) was determined using the enzyme immunoassay method. When analyzing cytokine levels in schoolchildren infected with H. pylori, there were no differences in cytokine concentrations (p > 0.05). While in uninfected children in the presence of erosive changes, a decrease in IL-2 content was noted (p = 0.026). In individuals with a family history of peptic ulcer disease with erosive gastritis, an increase in the content of IL-8 was observed (p = 0.006), which is known to play an important role in maintaining innate immunity. Whereas, in the absence of a family predisposition, schoolchildren with erosive gastritis showed a decrease in IL-2 (p = 0.027), which is similar to the level of IL-2 in schoolchildren with erosive gastritis without H. pylori infection. IL-2 is considered an activator of the antitumor response and this property is being actively studied in patients with gastric cancer. In the context of these data, it can be assumed that in individuals with erosive gastritis, even without a family predisposition and H. pylori infection, inhibition of IL-2 synthesis is observed. What causes this influence is an open question. Thus, the variety of components of the cytokine profile involved in the regulation of the inflammatory process and the influencing negative factors create difficulties in assessing and, even more so, predicting the role and significance of changes in the content of a particular cytokine in the blood serum in children with erosive gastritis.