Variation and clinical significance of serum IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

Objective To investigate the variation and clinical significance of serum IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy(HIE). Methods Sixty patients with HIE were divided into mild group (25 cases), moderate group (20 cases) and severe group (15 cases) according to the condition, and 30 cases of normal newborns at the same period were enrolled into health control group, the expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in serum were detected by ELISA. Results The expression levels of serum IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the acute phase of HIE newborns were significantly higher than those of normal control group (P<0.01), and decreased significantly in recovery period(P<0.01). The expression level of serum IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α had significant differences in different disease degree (P<0.05). The levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were significant positive correlation (r=0.581, 0.568, 0.512, P<0.01); and they were positively correlated with the degree of children with the disease (r= 0.936, 0.935, 0.769, P<0.01). The area under the ROC curve of serum IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in patients with acute phase serum were 0.948, 0.982, 0.913 respectively (P<0.01). Conclusions IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α play an important role in the pathogenesis of neonatal HIE process and exists the interaction; the expression levels in serum have high diagnostic value, which can be used as indicators of clinical diagnosis and disease monitoring for neonatal HIE. Key words: Interleukin-1β; Interleukin-6; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Newborn; Hypoxic-ischemic brain