Background: Cytokines are important in immune and inflammation response in liver transplantation. Determination of cytokine expression may lead to early detection of risk of rejection and infection in patients with this treatment.
Objective: To evaluate the expression of interleukin- 1beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL- 8), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) and granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients who received an orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).
Methods: Fourteen patient who underwent OLT due to cirrhosis were analyzed before and after (at 24, 48, 72 hours, 7, 15 and 30 days) transplantation. Peripheral blood cells were tested for IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, TGF-β and GM-CSF using semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (Roche Kit).
Results: No patient present acute rejection, and 11 of them had bacterial infections, 1 to 19 days after OTL. The cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α showed no expression in any phases studied and IL-1β only in 21% in the first phase post-transplant. Sixty percent of patients who presented bacterial infections express GM-CSF. TGF-b was the most frequently expressed cytokine.
Conclusions: Cytokines expression in the evaluated patients did not follow a defined pattern according to etiology. Increasing the size of the sample is deemed important to establish the implication of the diverse cytokines in liver transplantation.