title: IL-15 is elevated in the patients of postoperative enterocolitis.
abstract: Serum interleukin 15 (IL-15) levels were measured in 77 patients who were consecutively admitted to our intensive care unit. Postoperative enterocolitis occurred in four patients and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), but not Clostridium difficile, was identified in the faecal specimens from these patients. The IL-15 levels in the patients with MRSA enterocolitis were significantly elevated compared with those of other MRSA infections without enterocolitis including pneumonia (n=6) and cholangitis (n=1), and other MRSA non-colonized patients (n=66) (21.2+/-5.2 pg/ml vs 4.3+/-0.2, 4.3+/-0.5). Notably, an increase in serum IL-15 was observed just before clinical manifestation of severe diarrhoea. Our findings suggest that IL-15 may be associated in the pathogenesis of postoperative enterocolitis and its serum level may be a severity indicator of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Host Defense and Germfree Life, Research Institute for Disease Mechanism and Control, Nagoya, Japan. mtoshi@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mayumi
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takezawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Enomoto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ichiyama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshikai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology; D004760:Enterocolitis / Q000097:blood* / Q000382:microbiology*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000097:blood; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000097:blood*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D019409:Interleukin-15; D015850:Interleukin-6; D016753:Interleukin-10