TY  - EJOU
AU  - Hoffmann, Florian 
AU  - Albert, Michael H. 
AU  - Arenz, Stephan 
AU  - Bidlingmaier, Christoph 
AU  - Berkowicz, Nadine 
AU  - Sedlaczek, Sabine 
AU  - Till, Holger 
AU  - Pawlita, Ingo 
AU  - Renner, Ellen D. 
AU  - Weiss, Michael 
AU  - Belohradsky, Bernd H. 

TI  - Intracellular T-cell cytokine levels are age-dependent in healthy children and adults
T2  - European Cytokine Network

PY  - 2005
VL  - 16
IS  - 4
SN  - 1952-4005

AB  - Intracellular detection of cytokines via fluorescent antibody staining and flow cytometry has quickly
become a standard method in experimental immunology. However, in pediatrics most studies have been hampered
by the exclusion of healthy control individuals or have been skewed by neglecting to observe age-dependent
differences in cytokine production. We therefore intended to establish normal values for different age groups and
to describe the age-dependent development of cytokine profiles. Whole blood from 46 healthy children and 33
adults was analyzed by flow cytometry after stimulation with PMA, ionomycin and Mmonensin, and staining with
anti-cytokine and surface antibodies. In the pediatric population, we found a significant positive correlation
between age and intracellular cytokine levels of IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4 and TNF-α in CD4+ cells, as well as for IFN-γ
and TNF-α in CD8<sup>+</sup> cells. In adulthood, no such striking trend could be detected, but significant correlation was
found for IL-10 in CD4<sup>+</sup> cells and IFN-γ in CD8+ cells as well as for TNF-α in both cell subgroups. We present
here the first systematic analysis of intracellular cytokine production in normal, healthy children between the ages
of 0 to 18 years compared to results in adults. These data may provide a reference basis for the study of cytokine
secretion patterns, and they also demonstrate a significant maturation of the T-cell cytokine production capacity
from birth to adulthood.
KW  - intracellular cytokines
KW  -  T-cells
KW  -  children

DO  -