IL-6, TNF-α, IL-10, and nutritional status in pediatric patients with biliary atresia.

OBJECTIVES The objective of the present study is to evaluate whether IL-6, TNF-α, IL-10 are associated with nutritional status in patients with cirrhosis secondary to biliary atresia and compare to healthy controls. METHODS The parameters used for nutritional assessment were the standard deviation scores of height-for-age and of triceps skinfold thickness-for-age. The severity of cirrhosis was evaluated using the Child-Pugh score and PELD/MELD. Serum cytokines were measured using Cytometric Bead Array flow cytometry. RESULTS IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-10 were significantly higher in the cirrhosis group when compared with the control group (2.4 vs. 0.24 (p<0.001), 0.21 vs. 0.14 (p=0.007), and 0.65 vs. 0.36 (p=0.004), respectively. IL-6 and IL-10 were positively correlated with disease severity (0.450 [p=0.001] and 0.410; [p=0.002], respectively). TNF-α did not show a significant correlation with disease severity (0.100; p=0.478). Regarding nutritional evaluation, IL-6 was negatively correlated with the standard deviation score of height-for-age (-0.493; p<0.001) and of triceps skinfold thickness-for-age (-0.503; p<0.001), respectively. IL-10 exhibited a negative correlation with the standard deviation score of height-for-age (-0.476; p<0.001) and the standard deviation score of triceps skinfold thickness-for-age (-0.388; p=0.004). TNF-α did not show any significance in both anthropometric parameters (-0.083 (p=0.555) and -0.161 (p=0.253). CONCLUSION The authors suggest that, in patients with cirrhosis secondary to biliary atresia, IL-6 could be used as a possible supporting biomarker of deficient nutritional status and elevated IL-10 levels could be used as a possible early-stage supporting biomarker of deteriorating nutritional status.