Photo Credit: OGphoto

The following is a summary of “Interleukin-6 transcripts up-regulation in lymph nodes from unicentric and multicentric Castleman disease,” published in the October 2024 issue of Hematology by Lucioni et al.      

Castleman disease (CD) is a group of lymphoproliferative disorders with unique histopathological characteristics, clinically categorized into unicentric Castleman disease (UCD) and multicentric Castleman disease (MCD).  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess Interleukin (IL)-6 expression in lymph nodes of patients with different subtypes of CD.  

They analyzed 5 nodal CD cases (1 unicentric CD, 2 idiopathic multicentric CD, 1 HIV-negative human herpesvirus 8-associated MCD, and 1 HIV-positive human herpesvirus 8-associated MCD) and a non-CD reactive control using RNAscope analysis and a dual in situ hybridization/immunohistochemistry technique. Quantitative analyses of in situ mRNA were performed on digitized slides using HISTOQUANT software (3DHISTECH), and differences in IL-6 expression among the groups were evaluated using the Kruskal-Wallis test.  

The results showed increased IL-6 expression in all CD lymph nodes. However, the highest levels were observed in human herpesvirus 8-positive multicentric cases, with statistically significant differences in IL-6 expression between human herpesvirus 8-positive multicentric CD and the control case (P<0.05).  

The study concluded that IL-6 expression is significantly upregulated in human herpesvirus 8-positive multicentric CD, indicating that CD31-positive endothelial cells may be a primary source of IL-6 production in the lymph nodes.  

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jha2.1034