title: The release of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and colony stimulating activity (CSA) in aplastic anemia patients: opposite behaviour with improvement of bone marrow function.
abstract: Peripheral blood cells from patients with aplastic anemia were tested for their ability to release interleukin-2 (IL-2) and colony stimulating activity (CSA) before treatment. IL-2 release--as measured in the mouse thymocyte assay--was abnormally high in 18/34, and abnormally low in 10/34 patients. "Low" release was due to simultaneous release of thymocyte inhibitors. In 18 patients who achieved self-sustaining hemopoiesis after high dose immunosuppressive therapy, excess IL-2 release decreased to low levels (p less than 0.001), and the release of inhibitors disappeared. In contrast, the release of CSA by patient cells--which did not correlate with peripheral blood monocyte counts--either remained high or increased to excessively high values in 24/24 patients tested before and after successful immunosuppressive treatment. Patients with stable hemopoietic grafts after bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anemia, did not release excess CSA. It is concluded that IL-2 and CSA play opposite roles in aplastic anemia. High IL-2 release seems associated with disease activity, whereas high CSA-release appears to reflect a repair mechanism.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003115:Colony-Stimulating Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D003115:Colony-Stimulating Factors; D007376:Interleukin-2