Cytokines and neoangiogenesis parameters in young patients with acute discogenic lumbosacral radiculopathy

Introduction. Discogenic lumbosacral pain in young people has a complex and multicomponent pathogenesis. Evidence of the content of cytokines and neoangiogenesis factors in patients with acute discogenic lumbosacral radiculopathy are deficiency and often contradictory. Objective: to evaluate the cytokine and neoangiogenesis parameters in the blood of young patients with acute discogenic lumbosacral radiculopathy.Materials and methods. The study involved 49 patients (27 (55.1%) men and 22 (44.9%) women) with a mean age of 36 [27; 45] years with acute lumbosacral pain caused by degenerative changes in the spine and signs of compression of the spinal nerves, according to MRI. The control group consisted of 17 healthy individuals (10 (58.8%) men and 7 (41.2%) women) with a mean age of 33 [25; 41] years. The level of C-reactive protein was measured by an automatic biochemical analyzer Konelab 30Iprime (ThermoFisher, Finland). The levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) in blood were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on a plate ELISA analyzer Real-best (Russia) using reagent kits Cloud-Clone Corp. (USA, China).Results. Patients with acute discogenic lumbosacral radiculopathy, compared with the control group, has an increase in the levels of C-reactive protein (11.2 [7.1; 15.3] vs. 4.2 [3.5; 4.9] mg/ml; р = 0.011), TNF-α (23.1 [16.8; 29.5] vs. 9.7 [6.9; 12,5] pg/ml; р = 0.001), IL-1β (4.7 [3.1; 6.3] vs. 3.2 [2.3; 4.1] pg/ml; р = 0.041), IL-6 (11.2 [6.1; 16.3] vs. 4.5 [3.1; 5.9] pg/ml; р = 0.007), IL-8 (30. [21.9; 48.8] vs. 20.5 [8.5; 32.6] pg/ml; р = 0.023) and VEGF-A (318 [260; 570] vs.168 [100; 240] pg/ml; р = 0.002).Conclusion. The obtained results confirm the importance of pro-inflammatory factors and indicators of neoangiogenesis in the development of acute discogenic lumbosacral radiculopathy in young patients.