Epidermal green autofluorescence intensity is significantly associated with the serum levels of multiple cytokines of LPS-exposed mice

Inflammation plays various crucial pathological and physiological roles, in which a number of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines are important mediators. It is of great scientific and clinical significance to search for non-invasive approaches for evaluating cytokine levels in the blood. Our previous study reported that epidermal green autofluorescence (AF) intensity of LPS-exposed mice is highly correlated with LPS doses. In our current study, we determined if epidermal green AF intensity is associated with the serum levels of various cytokines in the LPS-exposed mice. We found that both epidermal green AF intensity and LPS doses are significantly associated with the serum levels of key cytokines including interleukin-1{beta} (IL-1{beta}), IL-6 and IL-10. Both epidermal green AF intensity and LPS doses are also significantly associated with the pro-inflammatory factors including IL-2, IL-12(p40), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), MIP-1, MIP-1{beta}, and regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES/CCL5), as well as anti-inflammatory factors including IL-5 and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). Our findings have suggested that detection of epidermal green AF intensity may become first approach for non-invasive evaluation of certain cytokine levels in human body, which could profoundly enhance our capacity to evaluate inflammation levels for monitoring health state, disease state and therapeutic effects.