Study of the relationship between thrombopoietin and infection-related reactive thrombocytosis

Objective To study the mechanism of infection-related reactive thrombocytosis.Methods Seventy-five infectious disease patients were selected including 42 cases with acute infections phase thrombocytosis (acute infectious phase thrombocytosis group),18 cases with acute infectious phase normal platelet count (acute infectious phase normal platelet count group),15 cases with recovered phase (infectious recovered phase group) and 16 cases with healthy controls (control group).The serum thrombopoietin (TPO),intefleukin-6 (IL-6),white blood cell,platelet was determined and compared among 4 groups.Results The serum TPO in acute infectious phase thrombocytosis group [( 159.1 ± 65.9) ng/L]was higher than that in acute infectious phase normal platelet count group,infectious recovered phase group,and control group [(43.5 ± 14.4),(40.3 ± 15.2),(41.8 ± 18.9) ng/L](P＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference in the serum IL-6 between acute infectious phase thrombocytosis group [(542.7 ± 247.0) ng/L]and acute infectious phase normal platelet count group [(598.5 ± 250.4) ng/L] (P ＞ 0.05 ),but which was higher than that in infectious recovered phase group [(43.5 ± 20.7 ) ng/L] and control group [( 38.3 ± 17.6 )ng/L] respectively (P ＜ 0.05 ).The serum IL-6,TPO was positively correlated with platelet,white blood cell.The serum TPO was positively correlated with IL-6.Conclusion Elevated TPO leads to the thrombocytosis,which is the possible mechanism of infection-related reactive thrombocytosis. Key words: Thrombocytosis; Thrombopoietin; Interleukin-6