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Elevated serum interleukin‐6 levels in patients with reactive thrombocytosis

1991; Wiley; Volume: 79; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1365-2141.1991.tb04534.x

1365-2141

Charles Hollen, James Henthorn, James A. Koziol, Samuel A. Burstein,

Autoimmune and Inflammatory Disorders Research

Summary Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) is known to promote mega‐karyocytopoiesis in vitro and raise platelet counts in vivo. To determine if there is a relationship between circulating IL‐6 and thrombocytosis in man, we measured bioactive IL‐6 in the serum of 13 patients with myeloproliferative disorders and 143 patients with reactive thrombocytosis having platelet counts > 600 × 10 9 /I. IL‐6 activity was assayed using the IL‐6‐responsive B9 cell line. Seventy‐one controls with normal platelet counts had a mean IL‐6 level of 2.19 U/ml × 1.08 (SD). None of the 13 patients with myeloproliferative disorders had elevated IL‐6 levels (1.56 U/ml × 1.2). In contrast, serum IL‐6 levels of 143 patients (158 samples) with reactive thrombocytosis were significantly greater than controls (38.3 U/ml × 94.6; P < 0.001), with 83% of the samples showing elevated serum IL‐6. No significant correlation was observed between serum IL‐6 levels and platelet counts in the reactive thrombocytosis group. We conclude that elevated IL‐6 is associated with reactive thrombocytosis, and hypothesize that the increased platelet count in many cases is causally related to elevated IL‐6.