Clinical Studies On Serum Levels Of Interleukin-2 In Children With Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia

Objective: Pneumonia is a common disease in children with high incidence. Recently, the atypical pneumonia caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP)is more than before. However, the mechanisms of it remain unclear. The role of cytokines in MP infections has gained much attention over the years. Interleukin-2(IL-2) is regarded as a central cytokine in the regulation of T cell responses. In addition to its effects on T cells, IL-2 also stimulates natural killer(NK) cells to proliferate and stimulates B cells to divide and produce antibody. IL-2 is critical to regulate immune responses. It plays an important role in the development of many diseases. The study is designed to test the serum levels of IL-2 in children with MPP and non-MPP in order to investigate the immune state of children with MPP. The objective is to provide evidence for detemining the treatment regime of MPP.Methods: We investigated the clinical course and serum levels of IL-2 in 32 patients with MPP and 25 patients with non-MPP admitted to The First Hospital affiliated to Dalian Medical University from August, 2008 to December, 2008. Twenty healthy children served as the normal control group. 3.5ml vein blood were taken from all the object and then the serums were separated from samples. All the serums were stored in the -80℃frige and to be measured IL-2. Enzyme linked immunoassay was used to measure serum IL-2 levels in children . The data was processed by statistical software spss 12.0 and with significance when probability value was less than 0.05. Results:1.Comare to non-MPP, irritable dry cough is more common in MPP.2.Serum levels of IL-2 in the MPP group ,non-MPP group and normal control group were respectively 82.389±25.776pg/ml,112.152±42.838pg/ml and 121.482±46.335pg/ml. Serum levels of IL-2 in the MPP group were significantly higher than those of the normal control group and the non-MPP group. Serum IL-2 levels were not different between the non-MPP group and the normal control group.Conlusion:1.The clinical feature of MPP is irritable dry cough and the pulmonary signs are not obvious. MPP has more extrapulmonary manifestation.2.IL-2 plays a role in the pathogenesis in children with MPP.3.There may be more remarkable immune function disorders in children with MPP compared to children with non-MPP.4.IL-2 may be a potential therapy in infants with MPP.