Increase of Tpo Levels in Patients with Acute Inflammatory States

Thrombopoietin (TPO) is a growth factor for platelet/megakaryocytic lineage and may also have a protective effect in other cell types such as heart and neural cells (Li et al, Circulation, 2006). In this study, we investigated the changes of TPO levels in patients with acute inflammatory response disease of different etiologies. In the case-control study, 65 patients with acute inflammatory response disease were enrolled in the case group (15 patients with acute myocardial infarction, 15 patients with acute cerebral infarction, 25 patients with acute trauma and 10 patients with acute pneumonia), and 65 healthy subjects were selected as the control group. The levels of TPO in peripheral blood and blood cell counts between the case group and the control group were compared by Student's t test for examing whether the level of TPO in acute inflammation states was higher than that in healthy people. And, by using Kruskal-Wallis H test and Nemenyi test, subsequent subgroup comparison was performed to assess whether there was a difference in TPO levels under the condition of inflammation of different etiologies and at different levels. Compared with the control group, serum TPO levels in case group were significantly higher (181.11±35.38 vs 96.13± 9.7 pg/ml, P<0.001), and the white blood cell count in case group (9.64±3.43) ×109/L was higher than that in control group (7.35±1.49) ×109/L (P<0.001), but the platelet count in the case group was not statistically different from that in the control group (P=0.313). In the further subgroup analysis, it was found that changes in TPO levels were different in different levels of inflammation. The level of TPO in patients with inflammatory disease of high level (acute trauma, acute pneumonia) was greatly higher than that in patients with inflammatory disease of low level (acute myocardial infarction, acute cerebral infarction) (P <0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference in platelet count among subgroups. In acute inflammation states, serum TPO levels increase do not correlate with platelet counts but inflammation levels, and TPO may act as an acute response protein to protect the heart and neural cells.