antioxidants and proinflamatory cytokines in the sera of patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis

background: leishmania is a significant health problem in many parts of the world. tumor necrosis factor (tnf) plays an essential role in leishmania major infections. objective: to study the pro-inflammatory cytokines and antioxidants in four groups of cutaneous leishmaniasis patients. methods: 39 patients were divided into four groups of: 1) active (acute phase of treatment); 2) non-healing (received treatment for almost two years without recovery); 3) healing (recovered upon treatment); and 4) healed (previously received treatment and achieved complete remission) patients. serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (il-1b, tnf-α, il-6) and serum antioxidant levels were measured by elisa and frap assays, respectively. results: while serum antioxidant levels were elevated in the non-healing group, there was no difference among other groups of patients and healthy controls in this regard. interleukin-1β showed the highest level in the non-healing group followed by the other groups of patients. the mean serum il-6 level was highest in the non-healing group, but showed no significant change in the other groups. tnf-α and il-1β levels were non-significantly elevated in the sera of active and non-healing patients. conclusion: pro-inflammatory cytokines il-1β, tnf-α, il-6 maybe related to the progression of leishmaniasis. serum antioxidant levels maybe correlated with patient response to drug treatment.