Journal of Applied Hematology · Published 2026-04-01 · DOI 10.4103/joah.joah_146_25
BACKGROUND: Interleukin (IL)-6 has been shown to be an inducer of the acute phase response and to play a role in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including graft versus host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The relationship between pretransplantation IL-6, procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels of 31 allogeneic HSCT patients and their age, gender, donor relationship, and, if deceased, the number of days after transplantation (in days) after death was analyzed. RESULTS: No association was observed between IL-6 and gender (P = 0.656), diagnosis (P = 0.485), donor relationship (P = 0.133), sepsis (P = 0.453), GVHD (P = 0.365), and GVHD degree (P = 0.482). A positive correlation was observed between PCT level and IL-6 (P = 0.011). A positive correlation was found between the patients’ CRP values and PCT values P = 0.001). A positive correlation was observed between the patients’ PCT levels and platelet engraftment (P = 0.006). It was observed that as the patients’ PCT levels increased, the platelet engraftment day of the patients was delayed. CONCLUSION: There is no difference between the IL-6 level before allogeneic HSCT and transplant parameters, engraftment time, and time to death after transplantation. Although IL-6 levels did not appear to have an effect on the development of GVHD after transplantation, further controlled studies were considered necessary. The IL-6 level and the PCT level progress in parallel before transplant. The PCT level delays platelet engraftment.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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