The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of IL-6 and IL-10 in plasma of female dogs with benign and malignant mammary gland tumours and comparison to that in healthy. The study was carried out on 44 dogs, including 34 dogs with mammary gland tumours (8 benign tumours and 26 malignant tumours) and 10 healthy controls. The concentrations of tested cytokines were analysed using a specific canine ELISA assay. The study showed that both groups of dogs with mammary gland tumours had significantly higher (P<0.05) concentrations of IL-6 compared to control group. Similarly as in the case of IL-6, dogs with mammary tumours had increased concentrations of IL-10 compared to healthy dogs. Only in relation to dogs with malignant tumours a difference reached statistical significance (P<0.05). In dogs with mammary carcinomas, the IL-6 concentration increased with histological grade of tumours and dogs with grade 3 tumours had a significantly higher (P<0.05) concentration of IL-6 than those with grade 1 tumours. Although the highest concentration of IL-10 was observed in dogs with grade 3 tumours significant differences were not found. The strong correlation (r=0.97) was found between plasma IL-6 and IL-10 concentrations in relation to the health status of animals. Our results suggest that IL-6 and IL-10 are important factors involved in a neoplastic process in the mammary gland of dogs. In addition, the results obtained indicate that circulating IL-6 and IL-10 concentrations could be helpful for identifying of malignant form of mammary gland tumours in dogs.

To Cite This Article: Szczubiał M, Krawczyk M, Bochniarz M, Dąbrowski R, Łopuszyński W and Urban-Chmiel R, 2018. Comparison of plasma interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 concentrations between female dogs with mammary gland tumours and healthy. Pak Vet J, 38(2): 194-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.043