Upregulation of peripheral blood levels of immune-regulatory Interleukin-10 Cytokine in human immunodeficiency virus-infected compared to non-infected pregnant women

Abstract

Alterations in the cytokine status have been suggested to be at least partly responsible for the immune tolerance during pregnancy. Indeed, interleukin-10 (IL-10) cytokine is known to control inflammation induced pathologies of pregnancy. The current study was set to investigate if HIV infection influences the production of IL-10 cytokine during pregnancy in adult asymptomatic HIV-infected pregnant women (n=44) and antiretroviral-naïve at enrolment as compared to controls (HIV non-infected pregnant women, n=44). Quantitative analysis of the IL-10 cytokines was done using Cytometry Bead Array Technology. Data analysis was performed using STATA version 13. P-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results revealed differences in the mean of IL-10 cytokine levels between the HIV-positive and the HIV negative participants over time across trimesters; trimester one 1.5 [(95% CI: 0.4, 2.5), P=0.008], second trimester 1.0 [(95% CI: 0.2, 1.9), P=0.019], and third trimester 1.2 [(95% CI: 0.3, 2.1), P=0.009]. These results demonstrates that, HIV infection favor the up regulation of IL-10 cytokine production in pregnancy. This upregulation of IL-10 may control inflammation-induced pathologies due to HIV during pregnancy. Further insight into the complexity of IL-10 cytokine in both HIV infections and pregnancy is greatly recommended to enable novel development of therapeutic strategies using this cytokine and targeting HIV infected pregnant women