The change of plasma inflammatory cytokine in liver transplant patients with early sepsis

Objective To observe the dynamic change of serum inflammatory cytokine in liver transplant patients with early sepsis.Methods 19 liver transplantation patients were divided into sepsis group(HSS group,n=9) and non-sepsis group(HSNS group,n=10) according to whether the patient developed sepsis or not early after operation(within 14 days).The level of serum inflammatory cytokine was detected at 30 min pre-transplantion and on 1 d,3 d,7 d,14 d post-transplantion.Their change and difference were compared between the two groups.Results The mean time for diagnosis of sepsis was 6 days.Compared with those before transplantation,post-transplant tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α and interleulin(IL)-10 decreased after a slight increase on post-op day 1(P0.05).Then they kept low in HSNS group,while TNF-α increased again on post-op day 7 in HSS group.High mobility group box 1 protein(HMGB1) messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA) expression in HSNS group was elevated post transplantion and reached to its peak on day 3.Then it began to decrease and came down to the level of that pre-transplantion.HMGB1 mRNA expression in HSS group was elevated significantly post transplantion and maintained at high level.Its expression was significantly higher than that of HSNS group all the time(all in P0.05).Conclusions In liver transplant patients with early sepsis,TNF-αelevated at the same as sepsis occurred.IL-10 increased later than TNF-α,but neither of them increased persistently during sepsis.HMGB1 increases before sepsis ocurred and maintained at high level.Dynamic mornitoring of HMGB1 expression may help to predict the development of early sepsis after liver transplantation.