Levels of IL‐15 in Serum and Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Behçet's Disease

• Published in: Scandinavian journal of immunology 2006-12, Vol.64 (6), p.655-660
• Main Authors: Hamzaoui, K., Hamzaoui, A., Ghorbel, I., Khanfir, M., Houman, H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Behcet Syndrome - immunology; Brain - blood supply; Brain - pathology; Encephalitis - immunology; Female; Humans; Interleukin-15 - blood; Interleukin-15 - cerebrospinal fluid; Male; Middle Aged
• ISSN: 0300-9475; 1365-3083
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3083.2006.01844.x

Interleukin‐15 (IL‐15) is a novel proinflammatory cytokine, involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory/autoimmune disease. The objective of our study was to measure serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) IL‐15 levels in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). CSF/serum IL‐15 ratio was introduced to assess the origin of elevated IL‐15 levels. We measured serum and CSF‐IL‐15 levels in 40 patients with BD (20 patients in active stage). Inflammatory and non‐inflammatory neurological disease patients acted as controls. Active BD patients have significantly higher serum IL‐15 levels (median 10.4 pg/ml; range 5.3–17.4) compared with BD in remission (6.05 pg/ml; 4–10.4) and healthy controls (4.65 pg/ml; 3.9–6.2). Similar serum IL‐15 levels were found in active neuro‐BD and inflammatory neurological disease (9.5 pg/ml; 5–13). Elevated levels of IL‐15 were observed in CSF samples from neuro‐BD patients (11 pg/ml; 8.5–15) and inflammatory neurological disease patients (10 pg/ml; 6.5–14) compared with patients with non‐inflammatory neurological disease (4 pg/ml; 4–5.5; P