Aberrant baseline cytokine profile in patients with newly diagnosed acquired aplastic anaemia correlates with disease severity and the treatment response

Background: Immune dysregulation is crucial in the pathogenesis of acquired aplastic anaemia (aAA). There is paucity of data regarding correlation of baseline cytokine profile with treatment response in aAA.
Objective: Present prospective case-control study aimed to correlate the baseline cytokines in patients with aAA with the treatment response.
Methods: Fifty-one patients with newly-diagnosed aAA > 13 years of either sex were enrolled over 1.5 years. Twenty age-and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were also included. The cytokine profile (IL-2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 17, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha) in the peripheral blood plasma of aAA patients was performed at the baseline using cytometric bead analysis. The cytokine levels were compared with HC and correlated with response to immunosuppressive therapy (IST) at 3-months.
Results: The median age of cases was 29 years (range,13-74). The cases had higher mean levels of IL2 (p = 0.326), IL4 (p = 0.038), IL6 (p = 0.000), IL10 (p = 0.002), TNF-alpha (p = 0.302), IFN-gamma (p = 0.569) and IL-17 (p = 0.284) than the HC. The baseline levels of all the cytokines were higher (statistically non-significant) among responders (n = 13) than the non-responders (n = 14) to IST. Conclusions: Baseline cytokine profile in patients with aAA might predict response to the IST. Larger studies are needed to validate our results.