Changes of peripheral blood IL-2, IL-17, and NK cell levels and their effects on immune function in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract

Objective To explore the changes of peripheral blood interleukin (IL)-2, IL-17, and natural killer (NK) cell levels and their effects on immune function in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methods 115 cases of ALL children treated in our oncology department from June 2014 to June 2017 were selected as subjects, 58 children who were confirmedly diagnosed but no yet treated as untreated group, 57 children who were completely relieved after systematic treatment as treatment relief group, and 50 healthy children were selected as control group. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to measure the expression of T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the levels of IL-2, IL-17. Results The levels of CD3+, CD4+, and NK cells in untreated group were significantly lower than those in control group (P 0.05). The level of peripheral blood IL-2 in untreated group and treatment relief group were significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05), the level of peripheral blood IL-2 in untreated group was lower than that in treatment relief group (P<0.05); the level of peripheral blood IL-17 in untreated group and treatment relief group were significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05), the level of peripheral blood IL-17 in untreated group was higher than that in treatment relief group (P<0.05). The level of peripheral blood IL-2 was positively correlated with the expression of CD3+, CD4+, and NK cells (r=0.762, 0.945, 0.771, P<0.05); the level of peripheral blood IL-17 was negatively correlated with the expression of CD4+ and NK cells (r=-0.562, -0.619, P<0.05), and positively correlated with the expression of CD8+ cells (r=0.669, P<0.05). Conclusion There are immune disorders of varying degrees in ALL children. There were different degrees of abnormalities in peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells, the decreased level of peripheral blood IL-2 and increased level of peripheral blood IL-17 participate in the development of ALL. Key words: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Interleukin-2; Interleukin-17; NK cells; T lymphocyte subsets