Blood mononuclear cell production of IL-1 and IL-2 following moderate surgical trauma

The in vitro interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) production and IL-2 receptor (IL-2-R) expression by peripheral blood mononuclear (PBM) cells were examined in patients undergoing elective cholecystectomy. The IL-1 production by monocytes stimulated with a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) did not change on day +1 but increased by 57.5% on day +3 (p less than 0.05) after surgery, and was normalized on days +5 and +7. The IL-1 production by PBM cells stimulated by LPS increased by 97.6% on day +1 (p less than 0.05) and 109.5% on day +3 (p less than 0.05) after surgery, and became normalized on days +5 and +7. The IL-2 level in PBM cell supernatants stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) decreased by 45.2% on day +1 (p less than 0.05), 33.3% on day +3 (p less than 0.05), 32.3% on day +5 (p less than 0.05) and returned to the preoperative values on day +7. The IL-2-R expression on PHA-stimulated lymphocytes increased from 60.4 +/- 4.8% preoperatively to 67.2 +/- 1.9% on day +1 (p less than 0.05) but was again within the preoperative values on days +3, +5 and +7. In order to detect the described changes, stimulation with PHA had to be used. This indicates that simple surgical trauma produces subthreshold activation of blood immune cells. The cells enter the 'response alert' stage which can be measured after stimulation with lectins.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)