High Pulmonary Levels of IL-6 and IL-1ß in Children with Chronic Suppurative Lung Disease Are Associated with Low Systemic IFN-? Production in Response to Non-Typeable Haemophilus influenzae

Pizzutto, Susan J.; Upham, John W.; Yerkovich, Stephanie T.; Chang, Anne B.

We found limited evidence of systemic inflammation in our cohort of young children. There were isolated exceptions but overall, clinical markers of systemic inflammation including CRP, white cell count, neutrophils and platelets were within normal ranges. In contrast, adult based bronchiectasis studies have described systemic inflammation, although this may be transient and associated with bacterial infection [11, 25] . We found no significant association between plasma and BAL IL-1β or IL-6 and no significant association between markers of systemic inflammation and the capacity for NTHi-specific IFN-γ production by blood mononuclear cells. Furthermore, clinical markers of CSLD severity (including radiological scores of bronchiectasis and socio-demographic factors) did not predict systemic NTHi-specific IFN-γ production. Thus, in children with CSLD, systemic NTHi-specific IFN-γ production is unlikely to be a direct consequence of systemic inflammation.