Evaluation of Changes in Immune System of Operating Room Personnel by Measurement of Urinary Neopterin Concentrations

Abstract

Today it is known that neopterin is mainly produced by activated macrophages and a marker of immune activation and macrophage activity. Increased neopterin concentrations are observed in diseases related to cellular immunity including occupational pathologies.The major goal of the present study was to evaluate the possible alteration of neopterin levels in operating room personnel, and also to show whether screening of neopterin may be useful to monitor the effect of occupational anesthetic exposure on the cellular immune system.Therefore, urinary neopterin to creatinine levels in both, exposed workers (n = 40) and healthy volunteers (n = 30), were measured by using high-performance liquid chromatography. At the same time, the correlation among urinary neopterin levels and working years, age, and smoking status were evaluated.Compared to controls, urinary neopterin levels in the exposed group were increased (controls: 85 ± 16 μmol/mol creatinine, workers: 151 ± 39 μmol/mol creatinine; p <0.05).The findings suggest that the follow up of neopterin levels may have diagnostic value in possible occupational exposure-related immune system disorders. Moreover, its biological monitoring should be performed in workplaces for clinical diagnosis and prognosis.

Evaluating noninvasive markers of nonhuman primate immune activation and inflammation

“…In addition, these markers are commonly measured in blood and used in studies of infection and disease in humans (neopterin, Plata‐Nazar et al, ; Rho et al, ; CRP, Rudzite et al, ), but also in macaques (e.g., neopterin, Heyes et al, ; CRP, Hart et al, ; Jinbo et al, ; Klingström et al, ), and in other mammals including mice (CRP; Huntoon et al, ), dogs (CRP; Yamamoto et al, ), pigs (CRP; Breineková et al, ), and other livestock (haptoglobin and CRP, Petersen et al, ). They have also been measured in excretory products (urine and feces) of humans and have been utilized as noninvasive markers of infection and immune activation, including in studies of intestinal infection, inflammation, and macrophage activity (fecal neopterin, Ledjeff et al, ; Campbell et al, ; urinary and fecal neopterin, Husain et al, ), intestinal health (fecal haptoglobin; Matsumoto et al, ), general immune status (urinary neopterin, Baydar et al, ), and gynecological cancer (urinary neopterin, Melichar et al, ). In such cases, they may not be measured because excreta concentrations indicate systemic infectious status, but because they are indicative of more specific local infections in tissues related to urinary or fecal excretion pathways, such as the kidneys and the gut.…”

Possible changes of New-Generation inflammation markers with occupational lead exposure

“…An inflammation and immune system activation marker, neopterin, is mainly synthesized by activated macrophages and shows the degree and prognosis of various diseases 10) . Neopterin is also useful in early diagnosis of immune alterations due to occupational exposures [11][12][13][14][15] . In parallel to neopterin, tryptophan degradation by the immunosuppressive enzyme indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) can be altered by immune modulation and inflammation 16) .…”