Systemic cytokine potential in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who completed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

The objective: to investigate the cytokine potential (TGF-β1, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-4) in the systemic blood circulation of patients who successfully completed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis, depending on whether they have chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD).Subjects and methods. The study included 118 patients who had successfully completed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis by the time of the examination. Group 1 included 79 patients with different forms of pulmonary tuberculosis without COPD, Group 2 – 39 patients with different forms of pulmonary tuberculosis and concurrent COPD. The Control Group consisted of 24 healthy individuals.In all patients, the levels of IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-4, as well as the active form of TGF-β1 were tested in the systemic blood circulation using commercial ELISA test systems.Results. By the time of successful tuberculosis treatment completion, COPD patients were found to develop the following: a special Th2-associated form of immune imbalance characterized by the reduced systemic level of TNF-α in combination with the increased level of IL-4; the increased risk of development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis due to the high level of growth factor TGF-β1 (in comparison with patients without COPD); elevated levels of TGF-β1 (compared with patients without COPD), creating favorable endogenous conditions for tuberculosis relapse.