Level of Interferon - Gamma, Interlukin – 6, Frequency of Monocyte and Lymphocyte Subsets among Newly Diagnosed Tuberculosis Patients in Northwest Ethiopia

Background: Tuberculosis is one of the fundamental health problems in the world. During TB infection immune cells and cytokines play the major role for the pathogenesis of the disease and also for host defence. Cells of immune system play a great role to decrease the progress of the disease with the coordination of cytokines. The aim of our study was to determine the level of immune cell and certain cytokine in TB patients and apparently health controls.

Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among newly diagnosed TB patients in Northwest Ethiopia. Blood samples were collected from all study participants. Serum level of interferon-gamma and interlukin-6 were determined by using an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Ready-SET-Go! Kit), Frequency of Monocyte and T cell sub population were measured with Flow cytometry using BD Multi TESTTM reagent. Mann-Whitney U test and spearman correlation were applied for statistical test by using graph pad prism.

Results: A total of 80 study participants comprising of 40 newly diagnosed smear positive TB patients and 40 healthy blood donors were included in the study. From our study participants 19 (23.75%) were females and 61(76.25%) were males with mean age of 30. Results from the study showed that the median level of IFN- ϒ (72.8) and IL-6 (13.45) in TB patients was higher when compared with controls IFN- ϒ (44.8) & IL-6 (4.08) (P > 0.001) while on the other hand, the median level of CD4 (565.5) and BMI (18.00) were lower compared to controls CD4 (857) & BMI (20.9) (P > 0.001).

Conclusion: Our study showed high level of IFN-ϒ, IL-6 and low level of monocyte, CD4 and BMI in TB patients than the control groups.