Effect of the nutritional recovery on the concentration of Interleukin-2 in severely malnourished children

The severely malnourished child has dysfunction of the immune response that may increase the risk of morbidity or mortality due to infectious diseases, therefore, the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effect of intensive nutritional support on the cellular and serum concentration of IL-2 and CD4(+), as well as CD8(+) T cells in children with severe protein energy malnutrition. A clinical assay was carried out in a tertiary care hospital. 10 severely malnourished children < 48 months of age who received formula without lactose via enteral feeding for two weeks and ad libitum for an additional two weeks were included. Cellular and serum concentrations of IL-2 and the subpopulation of CD4(+) and CD8(+) were obtained. A control group (n = 13) was included. A paired student t test for initial-final determinations and the Mann-Whitney Test for comparison with control group were used, and null hypothesis was rejected with a p value < 0,05. There was a noteworthy increase in the comparison between the initial vs. final percentage of the cellular expression of IL-2 (p < 0,001) and in the serum concentration of IL-2 (p = 0,001). Therefore, four weeks of nutritional recovery significantly restored the production of IL-2, independently of the nutrients involved in the process, although, the rate of restoration seems to depend on the severity of the children primary PEM.