Pathogenic Role of Interleukin-6 and Transforming Growth Factor-b in Some Lymphoproliferative Disorders.

1Solafa El-Sharawy and 2Ebrahim Awad.

Departments of 1Clinical Pathology (Hematology Unit) and 2Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt.

In malignant lymphoma and chronic lymphatic leukemia, dysregulated cytokines expression can contribute to the clinical and histopathological alteration of the disease. This work was planned to clarify the role of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Transforming Growth Factor-b (TGF-b ) in the pathophysiology of some lymphoproliferative disorders. IL-6 and TGF-b were assessed in 73 newly diagnosed lymphoma patients (30 Hodgkin’s lymphoma; HD and 43 non-HD; NHLs) and 20 chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL) patients. IL-6 and TGF-b were significantly increased in HD, NHLs and CLL patients (P < 0.01) being more significant in nodular sclerosis and high grade lymphoma. IL-6 was significantly increased in patients having B symptoms (P<0.01). Moreover, IL-6 and TGF-b were correlated positively with b 2 microglobulin. From this study we can conclude that concomitant measurement of these adverse immune activation markers, IL-6 and TGF-b , in CLL and lymphoma patients may provide an interesting insight in the histopathogenesis of the disease and may raise the potential for a novel therapeutic attack with a new immunoregulatory treatment strategies for lymphoma and CLL patients.