Soluble adhesion molecules and cytokines in septic acute lung injury patients

Abstract

Objective: We measured the levels of soluble adhesion molecules in acute lung injury (ALI) patients and patients at risk of ALI, and then analyzed the correlations between the levels of the adhesion molecules and those of inflammatory cytokines to determine whether these factors are involved in the specific pathophysiology of ALI with sepsis. Methods: We conducted a case-control study comparing ALI (n = 13) and ALI-free (n = 14) patients with sepsis. Soluble adhesion molecules (soluble intracelluler adhesion molecule -1(sICAM-1), sE-selectin and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1(sVCAM-1)), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in the plasma were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: In the comparisons of the soluble adhesion molecule levels between ALI and ALI-free patients with sepsis, the sE-selectin level showed the most significant increase (P < 0.001), and was most strongly correlated with the TNF-α (P < 0.01) and IL-8 (P = 0.001) levels. sE-selectin was more specific factors for ALI, based on their greater areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Among the measured factors, sE-selectin appears to be involved in the specific pathophysiology of ALI with sepsis.