IL-6 as potential predictive biomarker of febrile seizures

Abstract

Background Febrile seizures are the most common type of convulsions in children. Fever is induced by cytokines release during infection. Recent studies focusing on the identification of a possible role of cytokines in pathogenesis of febrile seizures have contributed conflicting results. Moreover, most of these studies investigated only a few cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6 and TNFα. The aim of this study was to investigate multiple cytokine-chemokine profiles that could be potentially associated with the development of febrile seizures. Methods Twenty-four febrile seizure cases (febrile seizure group) and two matched control groups were included in this study. Children with febrile illness without convulsion (febrile control group) and children without seizures and without fever (healthy control group) served as control groups. We investigated serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, CXCL10/IP-10, CCL2/MCP-1, CXCL13/BLC, TNFα, and fractalkine/CXC3CL1 in all children included in the study. Results The analysis of serum samples revealed a significant elevation of IL-6 (p = 0.0042) in the FS group compared to the febrile controls. Significantly higher levels of cytokines were also found in the FS group compared to healthy controls in IL-10 (p = 0.0039), TNFα (p = 0.0091) and MCP-1 (p = 0.0039). Conclusion Our study supports the hypothesis that IL-6 is involved in the pathogenesis of febrile seizures. We supposed that IL-6 could become a potential biomarker of the development of febrile seizures in children with febrile disease. This knowledge could be used in clinical practice to identify children at risk of developing of febrile convulsions.