Perfil de citocinas em pacientes com polipose nasossinusal associada à fibrose cística analisado por RT-PCR.

Abstract

Nasal polyposis often complicates the progress of patients with cystic fibrosis. There has been little study into the cytokines in the polyps of such individuals and the importance of these cytokines in the prognosis and response to therapy. The aim of the present study was to analyze the profile of cytokines in patient with nasal polyposis associated to cystic fibrosis. The percentage of eosinophils and cytokine profile were analyzed. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 13 patients withcystic fibrosis and nasal polyposis (Cystic Fibrosis Group); six patients (46.15%) were male and seven (53.85%) were female; average age was 22.45 years (6-57). The control group was made up of 11 patients with no nasal condition and negative allergy test, submitted to ororhinolaryngological surgery procedures; five patients (45.45%) were female and six (54.54%) were male; average age was 17.7 years (3-43). The percentage of enosinophyls was determined in fragments from nasal polyps (Cystic Fibrosis Group) through an anatomopathological analysis and the cytokine profile was researched in mucous fragments (Control Group) or polyps (Cystic Fibrosis Group) through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Transcriptions were studied for the cytokines IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IFN-ã and GMCSF,adjusted for the â-actin value. In the Cystic Fibrosis Group, three (23%) polyps were eosinophilic and 10 (77%) were non-eosinophilic. There was no statistically significant difference between groups with regard to age (p=0.32). Interleukins 5, 6, 8 and GM-CSF were similar in both groups, whereas there were lower IFN-ã values (p=0.03) and a strong tendency toward an increase in IL-4 (p=0.06) in the Cystic Fibrosis Group. Inflammatory and structural cells, including epithelium, fibroblastsand vascular endothelium, appear to have the ability to produce messenger RNA for IL-4, blocking the production of other cytokines such as INF-y, which may suggest a special participation of this mechanism in the formation of nasal polyps in cystic fibrosis.