Abstract
Methods: Nine children with active HSP and nine normal healthy children were enrolled. IL8 serum levels of patients and controls at different stages were analysed. Production of IL8 and expression of ICAM-1 by human umbilical venous endothelial cells were detected (ELISA for IL8, flow cytometry for ICAM-1) and compared under various stimuli, including sera of patients at different stages, sera of controls, and medium alone.
Results: Serum levels of IL8 were increased at the acute stage. Levels of IL8 in supernatants from human umbilical venous endothelial cells (HUVEC) co-cultured with sera from children with active HSP were significantly higher than those from HUVEC without any treatment (p = 0.001), HUVEC treated with inactive sera (p = 0.004), and HUVEC treated with sera from healthy controls (p = 0.004). Sera from patients and from controls did not enhance the expression of ICAM-1 on HUVEC.
Conclusions: Some factors may be present in sera from children with active HSP that could activate endothelial cells to produce IL8. This process may account, in part, for the mechanisms of perivascular neutrophil infiltration and leucocytosis in HSP.
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Figure 1.
The supernatant IL8 levels of HUVEC incubated with serum-free medium (medium 199)+sera from children with active HSP, HUVEC incubated with medium 199+sera from patients during the convalescent stage, HUVEC incubated with medium 199+sera from normal healthy controls, and HUVEC cultured in medium 199 alone.
Figure 2.
ICAM-1 expression on HUVEC incubated with (A) serum-free medium alone; (B) sera from children with active HSP; (C) sera from healthy controls; and (D) TNFα (10 ng/ml) for 24 hours. (E) The mean fluorescence intensity of ICAM-1 expression on HUVEC under different stimuli (arbitrary units 0–100). *p<0.001.