Effects of treatment in the levels of circulating cytokines and growth factors in cystic fibrosis and dialyzed patients by multi-analytical determination with a biochip array platform

Chronic inflammatory diseases need non-invasive sensitive, reliable and predictive clinical biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring therapy. Since inflammation is a complex phenomenon, simultaneous evaluation of different analytes in the same sample may help in defining this complexity and in developing specific anti-inflammatory intervention strategies. In this study, we used a biochip array system capable of measuring 12 cytokines and growth factors (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-1 α, IL-1 β, IFN-γ, TNF-α, MCP-1, VEGF, and EGF) in three groups: 97 control subjects; 24 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients before and during the antibiotic treatment (6 and 15. days) for acute pulmonary exacerbation as well as 15. days after the withdrawal of therapy; 22 children and young adults on chronic hemodialysis (HD) at the beginning and at the end of a standard HD session. CF patients in acute exacerbation displayed higher IL-2, IL-6, VEGF and MCP-1 levels than the control subjects. IL-6 significantly decreased during therapy (. P