Abstract
Sepsis remained a major cause of neonatal death, but the pathologic mechanisms were poorly understood. The objective of this study was to characterize the serum cytokine/chemokine profile in neonates with sepsis. In this study, we enrolled 40 full-term neonates with sepsis and 19 neonates without infection as controls. Serum 40 cytokines/chemokines were analyzed using Luminex Bead Immunoassay System. Serum IL-17 was measured using enzyme-linked immune-absorbent assay. Our results showed that serum IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, IL-1β, MIF, CXCL13, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL5, CXCL6, CXCL16, CCL27, CCL2, CCL8, CCL3, CCL20, CCL23, CCL27 and CX3CL1 were significantly increased in neonates with sepsis compared to controls (all p<0.05). The levels of serum CXCL6, CXCL1, IL-6, CXCL10, CXCL11, CCL20, and IL-17 were higher in LOS than those in EOS (all p<0.05). Conversely, serum IL-16, CXCL16, CCL22 were lower in LOS than those in EOS (all p<0.05). The levels of CX3CL1, CXCL2, CCL8 and TNF-α were all positively correlated with SOFA scores. We suggest that excessive pro-inflammatory cytokines might involve in the damage of neonatal sepsis. In addition, chemokines significantly increased the recruitment of immune cells after infection to participate in the anti-infection defense of neonates, but they might lead to damage.