Changes in the Levels of Interleukin-17 Between Atopic and Non-atopic Children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia.

As previous study showed that Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) induced a cellular immune response associated with interleukin-17 (IL-17), we designed this study to explore IL-17 in MP pneumonia patients with atopic sensitization and 144 patients were evaluated and divided into three groups: atopic MP pneumonia group (n = 38), non-atopic MP pneumonia group (n = 74), and atopic non-MP pneumonia group (n = 32). Serum IL-17 was measured at admission acute phase and at recovery phase. We found IL-17 levels only in the atopic MP pneumonia group that were significantly higher at recovery phase than at acute phase, and its levels were also higher in the atopic MP pneumonia group than the other two groups at clinical recovery phase.