Serum concentration of interleukin 6 is related to inflammation and dyslipidemia in patients with psoriasis

INTRODUCTION

Patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have metabolic disturbances, which may be due to chronic inflammation.

AIM

Because interleukin-6 (IL-6) regulates both metabolic and inflammatory processes, we evaluated IL-6 as a potential marker of inflammation and metabolic disturbances in psoriasis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study involved 93 patients with psoriasis, including 31 patients with concurrent PsA. We investigated whether serum markers of lipid metabolism and inflammation, including IL-6, were related to each other and to disease activity.

RESULTS

We found that concurrent PsA was associated with higher serum concentrations of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and IL-6. In patients with psoriasis alone, the IL-6 serum concentration correlated positively with the concentrations of TC and LDL-c and with erythrocyte sedimentation rates (ESRs). Moreover, IL-6 concentrations tended to correlate positively with the percentage of the body area affected by psoriatic lesions. Among all patients, those with normal blood lipids had lower ESRs and IL-6 concentrations than patients with abnormal blood lipids. A logistic regression model showed that PsA, Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), and ESR were significant predictors of the serum IL-6 concentration.

CONCLUSIONS

Interleukin-6 may be an indicator of inflammatory activity in psoriasis. Moreover, IL-6 may be related to lipid abnormalities in patients with this disease.

Large-scale generation of autologous dendritic cells for immunotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND

Mononuclear cells (MNCs) of severely impaired acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients may be collected by leukapheresis for large-scale generation of dendritic cells (AML-DCs) under good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions for adoptive immunotherapy.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

In five end-stage AML patients, a leukapheresis procedure was performed with a cell separator (either COBE Spectra [Gambro BCT] or Amicus [Baxter]). For large-scale AML-DC generation, the MNCs of a single leukapheresis concentrate were isolated by density gradient and plated into a cell factory under GMP conditions. The AML-DCs were harvested on Day 8 of culture, and their viability, the mature morphology, and the phenotype were evaluated. The AML-DCs were injected subcutaneously into five AML patients up to four times at a biweekly interval.

RESULTS

All AML patients entered the leukapheresis procedure with a highly pathologic blood count. In a mean separation time of 198 +/- 33 minutes, a mean of 1.3 +/- 0.2-fold the total blood volume was processed with a white blood cell (WBC) yield of 9 x 10(9) to 70 x 10(9) per collection dependent on the precollection WBC count. After density gradient a mean of 2.2 x 10(9) +/- 0.3 x 10(9) MNCs were plated into a cell factory. This resulted in a mean viable and mature DC yield of 0.01 x 10(9) of MNCs.

CONCLUSION

The leukapheresis procedure is a feasible and safe procedure even in patients with hematologic malignancies and highly pathologic blood counts. Sufficient amounts of MNCs can be collected in leukopenic patients and the large-scale generation of AML-DCs in cell factories under GMP conditions yields in an adequate quantity of viable and mature AML-DCs.