Cytomorphological characteristics and cytokine profile of induced sputum and nasal secretions of children with community-acquired pneumonia and acute bronchitis

Aim. To characterize the mechanisms of nonspecific airway inflammation using the parameters of induced sputum and nasal secretions in children with community-acquired pneumonia and acute bronchitis. Methods. A total of 100 children aged 7 to 16 years with acute respiratory system diseases including 49 patients with community-acquired pneumonia and 51 patients with acute bronchitis were examined. The control group consisted of 25 healthy children and was age- and gender-comparable. The cellular composition, degree of neutrophils and epithelial cells destruction, and cytokines levels both in nasal secretions and in induced sputum were measured. Results. The increase of neutrophils number was accompanied by a high degradation degree in induced sputum оf children with community-acquired pneumonia in contrast to children with acute bronchitis. A simultaneous decrease of alveolar macrophages number was observed. An increase of pro-inflammatory cytokines levels (interleukine-8, -17 and tumor necrosis factor α) with a marked decrease of anti-inflammatory cytokine level (interleukine-10), characteristic for community-acquired pneumonia, correlated with the degree of cell components degradation and depend on the morphological forms of inflammatory lung disease. Conclusion. With increasing severity of inflammation in the respiratory tract number of destructive changes of neutrophils also increases and disbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines deepens.