Diagnostic Significance of Interleukin-12 in Blood of Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps

Immune processes in humans are complex, integrated and coordinated. A key role in the regulation of immune responses is played by cytokine proteins that regulate the intensity of the immune response and interaction of immune cells. Cytokines are involved in the number of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases pathogenesis. Interleukin-12 (IL-12) can serve as one of the potential diagnostic markers of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. IL-12 induces the differentiation of CD4+ cells to Th1 cells, which underlies the significant role of this cytokine in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis. The aim of our study was to examine the diagnostic significance of the level of IL-12 determining in blood of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Materials and methods. Twenty patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps were examined. The control group consisted of twenty somatically healthy people. The IL-12 content in blood serum was determined by ELISA. To register the optical density of solutions, the Awareness Technology Stat Fax 303 Plus Microstrip Reader was used. The data obtained during the research were statistically processed using the Graph Pad Prism 5 application. Results and discussion. It was found out that the content of IL-12 in serum was statistically significantly 2 times higher in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps compared to the control group. The level of IL-12 in the control group reached 9.42 (9.16; 10.43) pg/ml, while in patients with the pathology studied in the research the cytokine level was 19.48 (14.65; 25.2) pg/ml. ROC-analysis was used to study the diagnostic significance of measuring blood IL-12 levels. It revealed that the informative diagnostic level of serum IL-12 level is above 10.82 pg/ml. This sensitivity is quite high and reaches 87.5%, and its specificity is 80%. Conclusions. Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps have significantly increased serum concentrations of IL-12. IL-12 levels are 2 times higher than in healthy individuals. The level of IL-12 in patients above 10.82 pg/ml is diagnostically significant in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.