Role of interferon-alpha, interleukin-1 beta and T cell activation in aplastic anemia pathogenesis

The present work was performed to clarify the role of stimulatory cytokine as IL-1 beta and inhibitory cytokine as IFN-gamma and T cell activation evidenced by CD25 expression in the pathogenesis of aplastic anemia. Twenty-eight newly diagnosed aplastic anemia patients and 15 age and sex matched healthy controls were included in this study. An estimation of IL-1 beta, IFN-gamma and the percentage of CD25 expression was done to all patients and controls. IFN-gamma was significantly higher in AA patients as compared with the age matched controls. IL-1 beta was significantly lower in AA patients as compared with the controls. The percentage of CD25 expression was significantly higher in AA patients as compared with the controls. There was a highly positive significant correlation between IFN-gamma and leucocytopenia. There was a negative significant correlation between IL-1 beta and each of age and leucocytopenia. There was a highly positive correlation between CD25 expression and Hb level of the patients

Thromboxane A2/prostacyclin ratio as a predictor for vascular complication in diabetes mellitus

Vascular complication of diabetes mellitus is a major problem. In a trial to study the platelet function in diabetics we measured, the platelet count and aggregation, both prostacyclin stable metabolite 6 ketoprostacyclin Fl [6KPGFl] and thromboxane stable metabolite [TXB2] to get TXB2/PGI2 ratio. We studied 20 insulin-dependent diabetics and 10 normals as a control. The result showed that no statistically significant difference between the diabetic group and the normal group as regard the platelet count and platelet aggregation both with low [20U] and high [50 U] dose of A.D.P. The level of [6KPGFl.] was significantly lower in diabetics [89.73 pg/0.l ml compared to the normals [228 pg/0.l ml] and the level of TXB2 was significantly higher in diabetics [609.2 pg/0.l ml] compared to the normals [105.3 pg/0.l ml]. Thus, the TXB2/6KPGFl. ratio in diabetics was 50.04 in comparison to 0.56 in the normals. We concluded that the loss of balance between the aggregator thromboxane A2 and the inhibitory prostacyclin may contribute to the evolution of vascular complication in diabetics