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. 2016 Jul 7:16:409.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-016-2471-2.

Interleukin-22 is elevated in lavage from patients with lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases

Amanda Tufman  1   2 , Rudolf Maria Huber  3   4 , Stefanie Völk  5   4 , Frederic Aigner  3 , Martin Edelmann  3   4 , Fernando Gamarra  3   4 , Rosemarie Kiefl  3   4 , Kathrin Kahnert  3   4 , Fei Tian  3   4 , Anne-Laure Boulesteix  6 , Stefan Endres  5   4 , Sebastian Kobold  7   8   9
Affiliations

Interleukin-22 is elevated in lavage from patients with lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases

Amanda Tufman et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Interleukin-22 (IL-22) is involved in lung diseases such as pneumonia, asthma and lung cancer. Lavage mirrors the local environment, and may provide insights into the presence and role of IL-22 in patients.

Methods: Bronchoscopic lavage (BL) samples (n = 195, including bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial washings) were analysed for IL-22 using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Clinical characteristics and parameters from lavage and serum were correlated with lavage IL-22 concentrations.

Results: IL-22 was higher in lavage from patients with lung disease than in controls (38.0 vs 15.3 pg/ml, p < 0.001). Patients with pneumonia and lung cancer had the highest concentrations (48.9 and 33.0 pg/ml, p = 0.009 and p < 0.001, respectively). IL-22 concentration did not correlate with systemic inflammation. IL-22 concentrations did not relate to any of the analysed cell types in BL indicating a potential mixed contribution of different cell populations to IL-22 production.

Conclusions: Lavage IL-22 concentrations are high in patients with lung cancer but do not correlate with systemic inflammation, thus suggesting that lavage IL-22 may be related to the underlying malignancy. Our results suggest that lavage may represent a distinct compartment where the role of IL-22 in thoracic malignancies can be studied.

Keywords: Biomarker; Bronchoalveolar lavage; Interleukin-22; Lung cancer; Pneumonia.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
IL-22 concentrations in lavage are higher in patients with lung cancer. a Comparison between BL IL-22 concentrations found in n = 173 bronchoscopic lavage (BL) samples from patients with lung disease and controls (n = 22). b Comparison between BL IL-22 concentrations for samples from patients with pneumonia (n = 47) and controls (n = 22). c Comparison between BL IL-22 concentrations of patients with lung cancer (n = 20) and controls (n = 22). Samples from lung cancer patients with a known coexisting inflammatory lung pathology such as COPD or lung infection were excluded from this analysis to avoid confounding due to additional inflammation. d Comparison between BL IL-22 concentrations for samples from patients with lung cancer and thoracic manifestations of other malignancies, summed up as “cancer” (n = 34) and controls (n = 22). P-values were calculated using the two-part Wilcoxon test after setting all values <15 to 0
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