Cytokine patterns, neutrophil chemotactic activity, complement component-3 and circulating immune complexes relationship to clinical staging and treatment of breast cancer

Breast cancer cell behaviour from growth to spread may be regulated by cytokines. The exact role of these cytokines however is not fully understood. We aimed to study the level of IL-1, IL-2, IL-4, CI, C3 and CIC in premenopausal breast cancer females in relation to different clinical stages before and after 3 and 6 cycles of CMF and CAF. The study included 36 premenopausal females; twenty four were with recently detected breast cancer of clinical stages II, III, IV and twelve were normal healthy control. Breast cancer group was divided into two subgroups. The results revealed a remarkable statistical significant decrease [P<0.001] in the level of cytokines, C1 and C3 in both malignant subgroups before chemotherapy when compared to control group. On the other hand, there was a statistical significant increase [P<0.001] in the level of CIC in both malignant subgroups before chemotherapy when compared to control group. Also, there was a statistical significant increase [P<0.001] in the level of CIC in patients with clinical stage IV when compared with patients of clinical stages II and III before chemotherapy. There was no statistical significant difference in all studied immunological parameters between both malignant subgroups after 3 and 6 cycles of chemotherapy. There was positive correlation between the different immunological parameters after 6 cycles of chemotherapy in both malignant subgroups. In conclusion, the suppressive immune response may have a role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Chemotherapeutic drugs may improve the immune response in some breast cancer patients while in other cases they may cause more impairment of the immunity. The suppressive immune effect is more pronounced by CAF regimen than CMF and in advanced clinical stage IV than in clinical stages II and III breast cancer patients

Modulation of immune reactions in hemodialysis patients with chronic renal failure: Evaluation of different immunological parameters

Circulating immune complexes [CIC], autoantibodies [antinuclear antibodies [ANA] and anti-DNA antibodies], total and differential serum proteins, bactericidal activity of neutrophils and lymphocyte protein membrane profiles were studied in 15 patients with chronic renal failure [CRF] undergoing hemodialysis [HD] and 10 healthy persons. The data obtained indicated that the ANA were detected in 20% of the patients, whereas, the anti-DNA antibodies were present in 13.33% of them. On the other hand, the normal control subjects showed no evidence of autoantibodies. A significant increase was observed in the mean levels of CIC and in the mean values of serum protein gamma- globulin fraction of the patients. SDS-PAGE [SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis] of lymphocyte membrane proteins revealed a difference between patients and controls. In addition, the bactericidal activity of neutrophils to microorganisms was impaired in those patients. It was concluded that, uremia related factors as well as the exposure of immune cells to artificial surfaces during dialysis may be the cause of this immune modulation observed in this study

Local and systemic assessment of LL-2 in children [9-14 years old] with severely inflamed gingiva

Measuring of interleukin-2 [IL-2] in gingival tissue and culture supernatants from children with gingival specimens were assayed for its presence. Ten gingival specimens from 10 patients and five blood supernatant samples assayed for presence of IL-1 IL-2 were significantly elevated in culture supernatants as well as tissue in comparison to normal [control] specimens. These results provided an evidence for the activation of immune cells in gingivitis, and suggested the role for IL-2 in the pathogenesis of the disease in children