Serum level concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines in patients with adenomyosis

Objective: We investigated the expression and potential roles of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IL-37, Interferon (IFN)-γ, and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) in patients with adenomyosis. Materials and methods: This prospective study examined 16 women with histologically proven adenomyosis and 52 women without adenomyosis, all of whom were undergoing a hysterectomy for nonendometrial pathology at the Department of Gynaecology, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China, from December 2011 to September 2012. Serum samples were collected from the patients, and the concentrations of serum IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IL-37, IFN-γ, and TNF were measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). We then calculated specificity and sensitivity of cytokines, taking Cancer Antigen (CA) 125 as a reference, distinguishing cases from controls by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The correlation between individual cytokines and CA 125 was also analysed. Results: IL-37 was detectable in 69.2% and the other cytokines in 30.8% of sera samples from the 52 controls. All the eight cytokines were detectable in the sera samples from 16 patients with adenomyosis. Significantly higher levels of serum IL-37 and IL-10 and significantly lower levels of serum IL-17A and TNF were detected in adenomyosis patients when compared with controls (p<0.05). Conclusions: Serum levels of IL-10, IL-17A, IL-37, and TNF varied significantly between cases and controls, and could be involved in the pathogenesis of adenomyosis.