The present study was set to investigate the potential association between the level of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), as a key component of the pro-inflammatory response, with different thalassemia’s biological and clinical features. For this purpose, one hundred fifty blood samples were collected from 100 beta-thalassemia patients, who attended the Genetic Hematology Centre at Ibn Al- Baladi Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, and 50 healthy subjects who were employed as a control group. IL-6 levels were estimated using an ELISA Kit, whereas other thalassemia-related clinical features (such as HbA, HbF, ferritin, blood transfusions, splenectomy status, and the history of frequent infection) were additionally assessed. The results of the present study showed a significant elevation (P≤0.01) in the levels of IL-6 in thalassemia patients as compared to healthy controls (57.7763± 8.94837 vs. 6.3059± 1.90364 pg/ml, respectively). Furthermore, IL-6 plasma levels seem to be influenced by the number of multiple scheduled blood transfusions, with the higher IL-6 mean level corresponding to the more frequent transfusions. Also, splenectomized thalassemia patients showed significantly higher IL-6 levels than those of non-splenectomized patients (61.2687±9.30688 vs. 56.9571±8.71926 pg/ml, respectively).Additionally, thalassemia patients exhibited a significant increase in HbF and ferritin levels in comparison to the healthy controls (57.1430 vs. 0.5020 g/dL and 2813.7000 vs.56.8220 ng/ml, respectively), whereas the levels of HbA showed a significant drop as compared to the control group (26.8118 vs. 96.1340 g/dL). IL-6 plasma levels correlated positively with ferritin levels (r= 0.611, p≤0.0001) and HbF (r= 0.7501, p≤0.0001). However, IL-6 appears to correlate negatively with HbA (r= -0.885, P≤0.0001) in β-thalassemia patients compared to healthy controls. Overall, the present investigation suggests that the levels of IL-6 in β-thalassemia cases seem to be affected by the multiple scheduled blood transfusions and other disease-associated complications, including splenectomy and elevated ferritin levels, which might influence patients’ susceptibility to infections.
Keywords---Interleukin-6, beta-thalassemia, splenectomy, ferritin level, HbF, HbA, blood transfusion