ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite advances in
health care for
sickle cell disease patients, as well as in the improvement in reproductive issues mainly in
women with the
disease,
pregnancy is still a challenge, both for the
mother and the
child, with high rates of maternal and fetal
morbidity and
mortality. Besides their chronic hemolytic status and vaso-occlusive events that confer systemic
complications,
pregnant women also have higher rates of
pain episodes,
infections,
abortion,
intrauterine growth retardation, pre-
term births,
eclampsia,
stillbirth and the
hemolysis, elevated
liver enzymes and low
platelets syndrome. The physiologic mechanisms of the
disease in
pregnancy are still unknown and chronic inflammatory responses may interfere in the adverse outcomes. The
cytokine and
chemokine profiles in
pregnancy with
sickle cell disease remain unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
cytokine profile of the inflammatory response of
pregnant women with
sickle cell disease.
Method:
Blood samples from 20
pregnant women with
sickle cell disease, 24
women with
sickle cell disease in steady
state, 16 healthy
pregnant women and a
control group with 9
women at childbearing age were assayed for
interleukin-6. Main
results:
Pregnant women with
sickle cell disease presented high
serum levels of
interleukin-6, compared to healthy
pregnant women (p = 0.0115).
Conclusion:
These data suggest that the increased
production of
interleukin-6 may occur during
pregnancy with
sickle cell disease and that the
role of this
cytokine in the
sickle cell disease pathophysiology and
pregnancy complications should be further studied.