The Study Of Levels Of IL-1β And IGF-1 In The Serum In Children With Epilepsy

Epilepsy (EP) is a brain-dysfunction chronic disease, which is caused by many reasons for nerve cell abnormally excited. It′s a common disease in pediatric. The seizure always affects the development both of the phisical and the mental which makes children with EP more difficult in communication. But the mechanism has not been clear in EP. Several reports have indicated that EP is an immune-associated disease in these years. Many cytokines play important roles during the progress of EP. Objective: To study the serum levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in children with EP, and to investigate the roles of these two cytokines in the pathogenesis and treatment of EP. Methods: To utilize a enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the concentrations of IL-1β and IGF-1 were investigated in the serum of 30 children with EP. These patients were divided into 2 groups, the untreated group involved 15 patients, the treated group involved 15 patients in which 9 patients were treated by topamax and others were treated by sodium valproate. At the same time, the investigation was done in 20 healthy children.Results: The serum levels of IL-1β and IGF-1 in the untreated group (18.16±4.28pg/ml and 167.5±48.1ng/ml) were significantly higher than the normal group(6.59±0.91pg/ml and 66.48±6.46ng/ml) (p<0.01);The serum levels of IL-1β and IGF-1 in the treated group (10.86±2.11pg/ml and 1544.38±688.07ng/ml) were significantly higher than the normal group (6.59±0.91pg/ml and 66.48±6.46ng/ ml) (p<0.01); The serum level of IL-1β in the treated group were significantly lower than the untreated group (p<0.01), The serum level of IGF-1 in the treated group was significantly higher than the untreated group (p<0.01); The serum level of IGF-1 in the group treated by sodium valptoate was significantly higher than the group treated by topamax (p<0.05);The serum level of IL-1β had no difference between the group treated by sodium valproate and the group treated by topamax (p>0.05).Conclusion: IL-1β and IGF-1 involved in the progress of EP and played important roles in EP. The levels of the two cytokines were higher. The results indicate that the children with EP have the imbalance of the immunity and the imbalance exists for a long time. Thus, the immunity regulator therapy may be useful in clinical treatment. The level of IGF-1 was increased when treated with sodium valproate and was not affected when treated with topamax. The results suggest that some anti-epileptic drugs may affect the immune system in vivo.