WITHDRAWN: IL-17C plays a role in the pathophysiology of acute recurrent tonsillitis

Abstract

Most tonsillectomies in the UK are performed to treat acute recurrent tonsillitis (ART) and tonsil hypertrophy due to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). At present, the pathophysiology of these 2 common conditions is still poorly understood. We have performed optical mesoscopic imaging to reveal the spatial location of two interleukins, IL-17C and IL-1 Beta, associated with tonsillar conditions, with the aim of understanding their possible role as specific disease biomarkers. Using immunofluorescence assays, we have shown that the expression of IL-17C is significantly higher in both the epithelial tissue (p < 0.0001) and core tissues (p = 0.0007) of specimens from patients with ART compared to patients with OSA (n = 17 patients). We also demonstrated significantly higher expression of IL-17C in homogenates of ART patient tissue compared to OSA tissue (p = 0.05). These data show the promise of IL-17C as a biomarker for ART and we propose this as a possible new approach to discriminate ART from OSA.