Changes in serum level of ghrelin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 in children with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the changes in serum levels of ghrelin, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in Children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) at pre and post percutaneous management of the lesions. Material & Methods: We measured the serum levels of ghrelin, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) by enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in 67 patients with CHD and in 20 control subjects; and compared these markers of inflammatory reaction between groups of pre-closure (37 patients) and at the end of 5 minutes (37 patients), 1 month (22 patients) and 3 month (8 patients) post percutaneous management of the lesions. Results: Our results showed that the patients with CHD had significantly higher serum level of Ghrelin, TNF-α and IL-6 in comparison of the controls but gradually return towards the baseline levels at the end of 3 months post percutaneous management of the lesions. Conclusion: The inflammatory reaction is activated in pre-closure and self-limited post-closure in children with CHD. Percutaneous management could improve the inflammatory process, which is safe and effective in children with CHD.

Immunity and inflammation: the neglected key players in congenital heart disease?

“…According to these insights, it can be stated that systemic inflammation is present in CHD and is associated with HF characteristics. Some studies illustrated that successful therapy of CHD-HF induced a normalization of inflammatory signaling and a decrease of blood cytokine levels [ 24 , 46 , 47 ]. In human whole heart tissue of CHD patients, an activation of the NF‑κB pathway has been reported at comparable levels to non-congenital HF [ 48 ].…”

“…HF therapy success might also be reflected by changes in inflammatory markers. Interventional or drug treatments of HF lead to declining inflammatory cytokine levels in children with CHD and ACHD [ 46 , 47 , 80 ]. According to recent scientific findings, adaptive immune activation including circulating anti-heart autoantibodies might enable to monitor the immune response upon myocardial injury [ 66 , 81 ].…”