Ueno Y, Takano N, Kanegane H, Yokoi T, Yachie A, Miyawaki T, Taniguchi N
Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Japan.
Clin Exp Immunol. 1989 Jun;76(3):337-42.
Interleukin 6 (IL-6) has manifold biological functions involved in the immune or inflammatory responses of the host to various stimuli. Here we asked whether IL-6 might be responsible for manifestations of Kawasaki disease (KD), such as immunoglobulin hypersecretion, lymphocyte activation and systemic vasculitis. IL-6 activity in the serum was determined by a sensitive colorimetric assay using an IL-6-dependent murine hybridoma clone. Usually sera from healthy or afebrile donors contained only negligible levels of IL-6 activity below the detection threshold of the assay. Importantly it was found that serum IL-6 was markedly elevated in all patients with acute KD. Serum levels of IL-6 activity gradually diminished during the course of the disease and reached undetectable or lower levels at the convalescent phase. However, such elevated levels of serum IL-6 activity were also observed in the majority of other febrile diseases, such as bacterial or viral infections, indicating that the appearance of IL-6 in the serum could generally occur in febrile or inflammatory disease conditions. Serum IL-6 activity correlated with serum concentrations of some acute phase proteins (APP), such as C-reactive protein, haptoglobin and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein, implying its role for modulating induction of APP in vivo. IL-6 is well known to be secreted by a variety of cell types. Further studies, including immunohistochemical analysis using anti-IL-6 antibody, will be necessary to examine whether the source of serum IL-6 in KD might be different from that seen in other diseases.
白细胞介素6（IL-6）具有多种生物学功能，参与宿主对各种刺激的免疫或炎症反应。在此，我们探讨IL-6是否可能与川崎病（KD）的表现有关，如免疫球蛋白分泌过多、淋巴细胞活化和系统性血管炎。血清中的IL-6活性通过使用依赖IL-6的小鼠杂交瘤克隆的灵敏比色测定法来确定。通常，来自健康或无发热捐赠者的血清中IL-6活性水平极低，低于该测定法的检测阈值。重要的是，发现所有急性KD患者的血清IL-6均显著升高。在疾病过程中，血清IL-6活性水平逐渐降低，在恢复期达到不可检测或更低水平。然而，在大多数其他发热性疾病中，如细菌或病毒感染，也观察到血清IL-6活性水平升高，这表明血清中IL-6的出现通常发生在发热或炎症性疾病状态下。血清IL-6活性与一些急性期蛋白（APP）的血清浓度相关，如C反应蛋白、触珠蛋白和α1-酸性糖蛋白，这意味着其在体内调节APP诱导中的作用。众所周知，IL-6由多种细胞类型分泌。需要进一步的研究，包括使用抗IL-6抗体的免疫组织化学分析，来检查KD患者血清IL-6的来源是否与其他疾病不同。
