Department of Respiratory, Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, People's Republic of China.
Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2022 Jun 7;17:1339-1347. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S357151. eCollection 2022.
Interleukin (IL)-36α, IL-36β, and IL-36γ belong to the IL-36 family and play an important role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be correlated with IL-36; however, the specific role of IL-36 in COPD is unclear. In this study, we aimed to clarify whether IL-36 could be an indicator for determining COPD severity and the specific nature of the pro-inflammatory effects of IL-36 in COPD.
A total of 70 patients with COPD and 20 control subjects were included in this study. We collected peripheral blood samples from both the groups, analyzed the blood cell fractions by routine blood examination, and measured the serum levels of IL-36α, IL-36β, and IL-36γ by performing polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In addition, the correlation between the number of neutrophils and eosinophils and the level of IL-36 was also analyzed.
We found that level of IL-36 in patients with COPD was positively correlated with the number of neutrophils but not with eosinophils, whereas the correlation was not found in the control group. Moreover, the level of IL-36 was negatively correlated with the level of lung function of patients with COPD, and the levels of IL-36α, IL-36β, and IL-36γ increased with advancing disease severity.
In COPD, the pro-inflammatory effect of IL-36 is closely related to neutrophils, and hence, IL-36 might be considered a novel biomarker for determining COPD severity.
白细胞介素 (IL)-36α、IL-36β 和 IL-36γ 属于 IL-36 家族，在许多疾病的发病机制中发挥重要作用。慢性阻塞性肺疾病 (COPD) 可能与 IL-36 相关；然而，IL-36 在 COPD 中的具体作用尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们旨在阐明 IL-36 是否可以作为确定 COPD 严重程度的指标，以及 IL-36 在 COPD 中的促炎作用的具体性质。
本研究共纳入 70 例 COPD 患者和 20 例对照者。我们采集两组的外周血样本，通过常规血液检查分析血细胞成分，并通过聚合酶链反应和酶联免疫吸附试验检测 IL-36α、IL-36β 和 IL-36γ 的血清水平。此外，还分析了中性粒细胞和嗜酸性粒细胞的数量与 IL-36 水平之间的相关性。
我们发现 COPD 患者的 IL-36 水平与中性粒细胞数量呈正相关，但与嗜酸性粒细胞数量无关，而对照组则没有这种相关性。此外，IL-36 水平与 COPD 患者的肺功能呈负相关，且随着疾病严重程度的加重，IL-36α、IL-36β 和 IL-36γ 的水平升高。
在 COPD 中，IL-36 的促炎作用与中性粒细胞密切相关，因此，IL-36 可能被视为确定 COPD 严重程度的新型生物标志物。
