Expression of T-helper-associated cytokines in the serum of pituitary adenoma patients preoperatively and postperatively

Abstract

Pituitary adenomas are benign tumors, However, 30% of them may develop into invasive tumors by invading the surrounding tissues. The studies have shown that several cytokines were expressed in human anterior pituitary adenomas, therefore, we speculate that the cytokines are important in human anterior pituitary tumorigenesis. The current study is designed to investigate expression profiles of cytokines in the serum of patients with pituitary adenomas. This was done by selecting 75 cases with pituitary adenoma, including invasive and non-invasive pituitary adenomas and collected blood samples of preoperative, 1month, 3months, and 6months after surgery, respectively. We used the cell flow instrument to detect the level of Lymphocytes and subsets and immunoglobulin and complement in the peripheral blood, and by ELISA detecting the content of cytokines (IL-17, IL-4, IL-5, TNF-α, INF-γ) in the serum of pituitary adenoma patients. The results show that the level of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-17 was increased substantially before surgery but they decreased substantially after surgery, IFN-γ, TNF-a was increased after surgery, the ratio of Th1/Th2 (IFN-γ/IL-4) was significantly lower before surgery and increased distinctly post-operation. These data indicated that there is some cross-regulation among Th1, Th2 and Th17 subsets and that cytokines are important in tissue inflammatory lesions of pituitary adenomas and promoting invasive development.