Cytokine levels in groups of patients with different duration of chronic secretory otitis

Abstract

Chronic secretory otitis relates to the permanent presence of secretion in the middle ear for more than 3 months. The reason why applied therapy is often ineffective is that, for now, etiopathogenic molecular mechanisms responsible for the cause and the course of the secretory process in the mucus of the middle ear have not been precisely defined. Cytokines are the key mediators in middle ear inflammation with secretory otitis and regulating different inflammation states can add to the cause of the molecular processes that lead to hystopathological changes in mucus and submucus characteristically for the chronic state of secretory otitis. The aim of our work was to define the pro-inflammatory, immunoregulatory and allergy-associated cytokine levels in middle ear secretion samples of diseased children and to compare the defined values with the secretory process continuance in groups of patients who were diseased for more or less than 3 months. According to the results that have showed higher concentration of all ten examined cytokines in the secretion samples of the children who had secretory otitis for a longer time, it can be concluded that the disturbance expression regulation of the pro-inflammatory TNFα, TNFβ, IL1β, IFNγ, IL-6 and IL-8, as well as immunoregulatory IL-2 and IL-10, and allergy associated cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 relating to the hyper production can add to the conversion of the inflammatory process to the chronic state, which has been maintained for longer than 3 months.