Significant elevation of a Th2 cytokine, interleukin-10, in pelvic inflammatory disease

Background: We investigated the expressions and ratios of type 1 T helper cell (Th1) cytokines interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-2 (IL-2), as well as type 2 T helper cell (Th2) cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-5 (IL-5), interleukin-13 (IL-13) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) patients. Methods: The human cytokine LINCOplex multiplex bead array was used to measure the plasma levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in 50 healthy controls, as well as in 41 PID patients before and after routine protocol treatment. Results: Significantly increased expressions of Th1 cytokine IFN-γ (p=0.004), as well as Th2 cytokine IL-5 (p=0.001), and dramatically increased IL-10 (p=0.0001), but significantly decreased expression of Th1 cytokine IL-2 (p=0.029) in PID patients were found after comparison to the control group. The ratio of IFN-γ to IL-13 showed a significant increase, but the ratios of IFN-γ to IL-10 and IL-2 to IL-10 was significantly decreased in PID patients before treatment compared to after treatment and controls. Conclusions: The results indicate that the imbalance and cross-regulation between Th1 and Th2 cytokines pathways is probably contributed to the mechanism of PID.