Figures
- Fig. 1—
Comparison of concentrations of interleukin (IL)-16 in tuberculous and malignant pleural effusions. Horizontal bars represent means. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test. ***: p<0.001.
- Fig. 2—
Correlations between interleukin (IL)-16 levels in pleural effusion (PE) and serum, determined by Spearman rank correlation coefficients (r = 0.460; p<0.001).
- Fig. 3—
The concentration of interleukin (IL)-16 correlated with the numbers of total nucleated cells (a; n = 62; r = 0.463; p<0.001) and lymphocytes (b; n = 62; r = 0.526; p<0.001), but did not correlate with the number of neutrophils (c; n = 62; r = 0.344; p = 0.066), macrophages (d; n = 62; r = −0.126; p = 0.327), mesothelial cells (e; n = 62; r = −0.199; p = 0.120) and malignant cells (f; n = 13; r = 0.403; p = 0.172) in pleural effusions. Correlations were determined by Spearman rank correlation coefficients.
- Fig. 4—
The concentration of interleukin (IL)-16 correlated with the numbers of CD3+ T-cells (a; r = 0.638; p<0.001), CD4+ T-cells (b; r = 0.701; p<0.001) and CD8+ T-cells (c; r = 0.383; p = 0.037) in pleural effusions from 15 patients with tuberculous pleurisy and 15 patients with lung cancer. Correlations were determined by Spearman rank correlation coefficients.
- Fig. 5—
Pleural effusion (PE) is chemotactic for CD4+ T-cells. PEs from patients with tuberculous pleurisy (n = 5) and with lung cancer (n = 5) were used to stimulate chemotaxis of peripheral blood CD4+ T-cells isolated from healthy adults. □: chemotaxis in the absence of anti-interleukin (IL)-16 monoclonal antibody (mAb); ▪: an irrelevant isotype control; ▪: chemotaxis in the presence of anti-IL-16 mAb. The comparison between tuberculous PE versus malignant PE was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test. #: p<0.01; ¶: p<0.01 compared with the corresponding group without anti-IL-16 mAb, determined by Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA on ranks.
- Fig. 6—
Changes of CD4+ T-cell numbers in pleural effusion from patients with tuberculous pleurisy and lung cancer, who were intrapleurally injected with vehicle (▪) and recombinant human interleukin-16 (▪). Data are presented as mean±sem. n = 6 for each group. *: p<0.05 for comparison of within-group change from baseline measurements determined by one-way repeated-measures ANOVA.
Tables
- Table. 1—
Biochemical and cytological characteristics in tbuerculous and malignant pleural effusion (PE)
Tuberculous PE Malignant PE p-values# Subjects n 32 30 Protein g·L−1 40.5±0.28 36.9±0.28 0.278 Lactate dehydrogenase IU·L−1 554.5±95.3 786.0±152.1 0.386 Total cell counts ×109·L−1 2.39±0.13 1.46±0.08 <0.001 Differential cell counts % Lymphocyte 73.1±1.2 46.8±1.2 <0.001 Neutrophil 12.6±0.8 3.8±.06 <0.001 Macrophage 12.9±0.8 38.3±1.7 <0.001 Mesothelial cell 1.7±0.2 6.8±0.7 <0.001 Malignant cell 4.3±1.0 Data are presented as mean±sem, unless otherwise stated. #: the comparison between tuberculous and malignant groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test.
- Table. 2—
Lymphocyte subpopulations in tuberculous and mailignant pleural effusion (PE)
Tuberculous PE Malignant PE p-values# Subjects n 15 15 Lymphocytes ×109·L−1 1.74±0.57 0.67±0.23 <0.001 CD3+ % 85.1±1.2 85.6±1.3 0.902 CD3+CD4+ % 64.3±1.5 54.8±1.7 0.001 CD3+CD8+ % 21.0±1.3 30.5±1.3 <0.001 CD4+/CD8+ ratio 3.1±0.2 1.8±0.1 <0.001 Data are presented as mean±sem, unless otherwise stated. #: the comparison between tuberculous and malignant groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test.
- Table. 3—
Concentrations of interleukin (IL)-16 in pleural effusion (PE) and serum
Total population Tuberculous group Malignant group p-values# Subjects n 62 32 30 PE IL-16 ng·L−1 1610.3±142.8¶ 2118.1±227.0 1068.7±101.3 <0.001 Serum IL-16 ng·L−1 439.3±30.4 515.7±46.5 358.8±33.2 0.027 PE/serum IL-16 ratio 4.6±0.4 5.0±0.6 4.1±0.6 0.170 PE–serum IL-16Δ ng·L−1 1192.5±133.7 1623.7±213.0 732.6±108.8 0.001 Data are presented as mean±sem, unless otherwise stated. #: comparison between tuberculous and malignant groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test; ¶: compared with serum IL-16, p<0.001 determined by Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
