Contents and clinical significances of interleukin-15 and interleukin-21 in serum of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy patients

Objective To investigate the contents and clinical significances of interleukin-15(IL-15) and IL-21 in serum of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy(TAO) patients.Methods A total of 76 TAO patients with their data and blood samples were collected in our hospital from June 2011 to April 2012,then they were divided into TAO inactive period group(CAS4 points,33 cases) and TAO active period group(CAS≥4 points,43 cases) by TAO clinical activity score standard,and were divided into non invasive TAO group(30 cases) and invasive TAO group(46 cases) by eye complications combined with CAS.Another 35 normal cases with their blood samples were collected as normal group.The content of IL-15 and IL-21 in serum of patients were detected by ELISA.Results The content of IL-15 and IL-21 in serum of TAO active period group were(389.42±278.32)pg·mL-1 and(248.54±157.32)pg·mL-1,TAO inactive period group were(45.06±8.54)pg·mL-1 and(12.62±6.47)pg·mL-1,and normal control group were(26.67±5.86)pg·mL-1 and(7.58±5.49)pg·mL-1.As to the content of IL-15 and IL-21 in serum,TAO active period group were both significantly obviously higher than those of TAO inactive period group and normal control group(all P0.01),and TAO inactive period group were both significantly higher than those of normal control group(both P0.05);Invasive TAO group were both significantly obviously higher than those of non invasive TAO group and normal control group(all P0.01);Non invasive TAO group were both significantly a little higher than those of normal control group(both P0.05).Conclusion The content detection of IL-15 and IL-21 in serum of TAO patients can be used to evaluate the situation of inflammation activities and infiltration.