Evaluation and measurement of IL-8 in cerebrospinal fluid of viral encephalitis in children

Objective To observe the levels and clinic significance of interleukin-8(IL-8) in cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) of infants suffering from viral encephalitis(VE).Methods Among 43 confirmed VE cases,23 cases were male and 20 cases were female,with average age of 5.9 years. Then there were 26 severe VE cases and 17 mild VE cases. 16 children with no-CNS-infection were used as contrast group.One sample of CSF was taken from each children. All sample were kept at-20℃. The levels of IL-8 in CSF were measured with sandwich ELISA methods,and the ELISA kits were provided by the company of JinMei Biotech in BeiJing.Results The levels of IL-8 in VE group were higher than that of contrast group(P0.05).Level of IL-8 of severe group was especially higher than that of contrast group(P0.001) ,and much higher than that of mild group(P0.001).Conclusion IL-8 not only gives contribution in anti-viral effect,but also plays a role in pathogenesis of encephalitis in children. It suggests the levels of IL-8 in CSF can be used as one of indicators evaluating tendency of the VE.