2023, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part B

Background: Aplastic anemia (AA) is a disease in which the bone marrow (BM) and the hematopoietic stem cells are damaged causing pancytopenia. It may be hereditary or acquired and it can range from mild to severe. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a chemokine that is critical for tissue damage in acute inflammation and has been shown to be potent inhibitors of myelopoiesis. Interleukin promotes macrophages to produce IL-8 in AA. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the level of IL-8 in patients with AA and its correlation with severity of the disease.

Methods: The present study was conducted on 40 individuals, 30 newly diagnosed AA patients and 10 healthy subjects served as control. They are classified to group I (8 patients with very severe AA 20%), group II (16 patients with severe AA 40%), group III (6 patients with non-severe AA 15%) and group IV (10 apparently healthy individuals as control). All groups were subjected to complete blood count (CBC), BM aspiration and biopsy for patients only, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), measuring level of serum IL-8 of AA patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results: Serum levels of IL-8 were significantly higher in AA patients at diagnosis when compared to the levels in normal controls. A significant negative correlation was found between serum level of IL-8 and Hb level, platelets count, neutrophil count, reticulocyte count and BM cellularity, also a significant positive correlation was found between serum level of IL-8 and ESR.

Conclusion: Level of serum IL-8 is higher in very severe AA patients than severe AA patients than non-severe AA patients, that suggested it may be involved in the mechanisms of AA hence it correlates with the disease progression.