Salivary cytokine profile in patients with ischemic stroke

Inflammation plays a crucial role in stroke pathogenesis. Thus, it is not surprising that cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors have been advocated in stroke diagnostics. Our study is the first to evaluate the salivary cytokine profile in patients with ischemic stroke. Twenty-five patients with subacute ischemic stroke and an age-, sex-, and oral hygiene status-matched control group were enrolled in the study. The number of patients was set a priori based on our previous experiment (alpha = 0.05, test power = 0.9). Salivary concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and interleukin 10 (IL-10) were assessed using an ELISA method. We showed that salivary TNF-alpha and IL-6 were significantly higher, whereas IL-10 content was statistically lower in both non-stimulated (NWS) and stimulated (SWS) whole saliva of ischemic stroke patients. However, evaluation of cytokines in NWS rather than in SWS may be of greater diagnostic value. Of particular note is salivary TNF-alpha, which may indicate cognitive/physical impairment in post-stroke individuals. This parameter distinguishes stroke patients from healthy controls and correlates with cognitive decline and severity of functional impairment. It also differentiates (with high sensitivity and specificity) stroke patients with normal cognition from mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Saliva may be an alternative to blood for assessing cytokines in stroke patients, although further studies on a larger patient population are needed.

Automated summary

Inflammatory cytokines play a crucial role in stroke pathogenesis. This study evaluated salivary cytokine profile in ischemic stroke patients for the first time and found higher levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6, and lower levels of IL-10 in their saliva. TNF-alpha in non-stimulated saliva may have greater diagnostic value for evaluating stroke patients.