Cytokines and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

Carlo, W. A., McDonald, S., Tyson, J. E., Stoll, B. J., Ehrenkranz, R. A., Shankaran, S., ... Higgins, R. D. (2011). Cytokines and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants. Journal of Pediatrics, 159(6), 919-U77.

Objective To determine if selected pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and/or mediators of inflammation reported to be related to the development of cerebral palsy (CP) predict neurodevelopmental outcome in extremely low birth weight infants. Study design Infants with birth weights <= 1000 g (n = 1067) had blood samples collected at birth and on days 3 +/- 1, 7 +/- 1, 14 +/- 3, and 21 +/- 3 to examine the association between cytokines and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The analyses were focused on 5 cytokines (interleukin [IL] 1 beta; IL-8; tumor necrosis factor-a; regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed, and secreted (RANTES); and IL-2) reported to be most predictive of CP in term and late preterm infants. Results IL-8 was higher on days 0-4 and subsequently in infants who developed CP compared with infants who did not develop CP in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Other cytokines (IL-12, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor-beta, soluble IL r alpha, macrophage inflammatory protein 1 beta) were found to be altered on days 0-4 in infants who developed CP. Conclusions CP in former preterm infants may, in part, have a late perinatal and/or early neonatal inflammatory origin. (J Pediatr 2011;159:919-25)