[Expression and clinical significance of interleukin-16 in patients with primary biliary cholangitis].

Objective

To investigate the expressional condition of interleukin-16 (IL-16) in the liver and serum of patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).

Methods

Liver biopsies samples were collected from 70 cases and 10 healthy controls, and serum samples were collected from 62 cases and 87 healthy controls. The expression of IL-16 in liver was detected by immunohistochemistry, and the serum level of IL-16 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The correlation between the expression level of IL-16 and the severity of disease was determined by correlation analysis with clinical biomarker. The t-test was used for normally distributed data. Wilcoxon signed rank sum test was used for non-normally distributed data.

Results

The expression level of IL-16 in the liver of PBC patients was significantly higher than that in the healthy control group (P = 0.002 5), and it was mainly expressed in infiltrating lymphocytes in the portal area. Correlation analysis showed that the level of IL-16 in liver tissue was positively correlated with the degree of liver inflammation (r = 0.36, P = 0.002). In addition, the serum IL-16 level of PBC patients were significantly higher than that of healthy people (P = 0.000 5), and serum IL-16 level was correlated with the level of cholestasis biomarker γ-glutamyltransferase (r = 0.31, P = 0.03).

Conclusion

The expression level of IL-16 is significantly increased in liver and serum of PBC patients, and it is positively correlated with the severity of the disease, suggesting that IL-16 may be used as a biomarker to assess the severity of the disease.