Evaluating IL-2 levels in human pulp tissue.

In murine and human CD4+ T cell populations, there are three subpopulations of T helper cell types. Hahn et al. demonstrated the ratio of CD4/ CD8 + cells significantly increases in inflamed dental pulps compared with normal pulps. Elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-2 have been detected in inflamed dental pulps and the level of IL-2 could be used as a marker for inflammation. In this study, levels of IL-2 were evaluated by using a human IL-2 cytokine assay kit on 80 samples of freshly extracted human pulp tissue. Applying standard diagnostic procedures, the tissue samples were clinically categorized into one of three experimental groups. The results demonstrated that there were no significant differences between the concentrations of IL-2 in any of the experimental groups. Our findings are different from results reported previously. Further investigation is warranted to determine if a correlation exists between the concentration of IL-2 or other interleukins and the degree of inflammation present in the dental pulp.