Immune-Endocrine crosstalk in hypertensive overweight men: Dysregulation of IL-17 and IL-40-mediated inflammatory pathways

Hypertension belongs to the category of serious health concerns among overweight people that are frequently attributed to chronic low-grade inflammation. The present study investigated the significance of the selected pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-17 (IL-17), interleukin-40 (IL-40), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF- α) as the markers of inflammation in non-smoking overweight men with hypertension. This case control study included 70 adult men (40 hypertensive and 30 age matched controls). Anthropometric parameters, arterial blood pressure, lipid profile, liver enzymes, renal function markers, aldosterone, cortisone, and serum cytokines were investigated. The concentrations of cytokines were determined through the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay procedures. Body weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, among hypertensive participants, were significantly higher in the cases than the controls (p≤0.01). Hypertensive subjects had significantly high serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-17 and IL-40, which are indicators of a strong pro-inflammatory condition. Also, hypertensive patients were characterized by dyslipidemia and raised liver enzyme activity, raised aldosterone and cortisone levels, and slight but significant rises in serum creatinine. The results indicated that hypertension among overweight non-smoking men is interrelated with immune response, metabolic dysregulation as well as endocrine dysregulation. It is interesting to note that IL-40 was also a candidate novel inflammatory biomarker in addition to the previously known cytokines, TNF- α and IL- 17. The study findings revealed that the inflammatory and immune-endocrine pathways could be a new chance in the early management and detection of obesity-related hypertension.