Determination of Toxoplasmosis Disease Activity by Estimation of IL-6 Cytokine

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle and Manceaux ) infects all warm-blooded animals, including humans. Early diagnosis and determining the infective stage are critical for treating immunosuppressed individuals and pregnant women with toxoplasmosis. This parasite modulates pro- and anti-inflammatory responses to regulate parasite multiplication and host survival. The aim of this study was to investigate the probability of using IL-6 as a marker of toxoplasmosis disease activity (acute and chronic) in different groups of women (miscarriage, pregnant and single) and estimate the relationship between infection and gestational age and history of abortion in miscarriage and pregnant women. The most abortion were occurred at the first trimester in chronic infected miscarriage women also, the most abortion were occurred at the first trimester in acute infected pregnant women. The result showed that acute infected miscarriage women with previously abortion scored high significant percentage of infection in comparison to non- abortifacient, chronic infected one and pregnant women. IL-6 was significantly higher in acute infected miscarriage women in comparison to single and pregnant acute one but chronic infected pregnant women characterized by the lowest level of this cytokine in comparison to all studied groups.