High serum interleukin-8 levels in afro-caribbean women with pre-eclampsia. Relations with tumor necrosis factor-alpha, duffy negative phenotype and von Willebrand factor.

PROBLEM: Pre-eclampsia is characterized by neutrophil activation. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a strong neutrophil chemo-attractant and activator. METHOD OF STUDY: We measured serum IL-8 in 13 pre-eclamptic Afro-Caribbean women and 13 gestational age-, race- and parity-matched normotensive and non-proteinuric controls. We also determined serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), the phenotypes of the IL-8 binding Duffy blood group antigen receptor and the von Willebrand factor (vWF) plasma levels.
RESULTS: Serum IL-8, TNF-alpha, Duffy negative phenotype frequency and plasma vWF were higher in pre-eclamptic women compared with controls. IL-8 correlated positively with both TNF-alpha and vWF in the entire study group.
CONCLUSIONS: Higher IL-8 levels in pre-eclampsia may result from increased production (secondary to increased TNF-alpha levels) and/or reduced clearance (related to a high frequency of Duffy negative phenotype).