Blood storage is a logistical necessity to maintain an adequate blood supply.  In resource limited setting especially, Nigeria, whole blood storage is still being practiced as only few tertiary centers have facility for blood component preparations. Storage time of blood components has been reported to play a major role in the accumulation of cytokines causing adverse transfusion reactions. Hence, it became necessary to determine the trend of accumulation levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-4(IL-4), interleukin 6(IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in order to know the extent to which stored blood could become potentially dangerous to recipients. Using 450ml blood bags, whole blood was collected from 5 donor and aliqnoited respectively into 8 sterile plain vacutainer and stored at 2⁰ – 6⁰C.  Cytokine estimation was done on day 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 using ELISA development kit.  Statistical analysis was done using parametric and nonprametric tests. The mean value of interleukin-4 (IL-4) of 38.60±22.68 on day 1 dropped significantly to 7.40±6.98 on day 5.  The mean value of interleukin-6 (IL-6) which was 8.24±6.65 on day 1 equally decreased significantly to 4.78±2.75 on day 5.  Also, tissue necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) which had a mean value of 10.38±8.30 on day 1 dropped significantly to 5.32±2.90 on day 5.  After day 5, there was a gradual build-up but still significantly lower up till day 35, but not exceeding the concentration at day 1 of storage except TNF-α, which at day 35 was significantly higher than the baseline value on day 1 of storage.  The trend in the concentration of the interleukins during storage appeared similar except in TNF-α where the concentration dropped on day 5, increased steadily up to day 15 and dropped from day 30 to a value quite significant than the base value.  Hence, it became evident that the concentration of IL-4, IL-6 and TNF-α were down regulated at the blood bank temperature, and with their sustained levels up to day 30, there seems to be no possible risk for febrile non haemolyic transfusion reactions.

Keywords: Interleukin-4 (IL-4), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) febrile non haemolyic transfusion reactions. (FNHTR), Pro-inflammatory, Cytokine.

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Chukwu, S. U.

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