Interleukin-6 in pregnancy with sickle cell disease

BACKGROUND: Despite advances in health care for sickle cell disease patients, as well as in the improvement in reproductive issues mainly in women with the disease, pregnancy is still a challenge, both for the mother and the child, with high rates of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Besides their chronic hemolytic status and vaso-occlusive events that confer systemic complications, pregnant women also have higher rates of pain episodes, infections, abortion, intrauterine growth retardation, pre-term births, eclampsia, stillbirth and the hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets syndrome. The physiologic mechanisms of the disease in pregnancy are still unknown and chronic inflammatory responses may interfere in the adverse outcomes. The cytokine and chemokine profiles in pregnancy with sickle cell disease remain unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytokine profile of the inflammatory response of pregnant women with sickle cell disease. METHOD: Blood samples from 20 pregnant women with sickle cell disease, 24 women with sickle cell disease in steady state, 16 healthy pregnant women and a control group with 9 women at childbearing age were assayed for interleukin-6. MAIN RESULTS: Pregnant women with sickle cell disease presented high serum levels of interleukin-6, compared to healthy pregnant women (p = 0.0115). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the increased production of interleukin-6 may occur during pregnancy with sickle cell disease and that the role of this cytokine in the sickle cell disease pathophysiology and pregnancy complications should be further studied.