Abstract
Preterm infants are at risk of brain injury and poor neurodevelopmental outcomes including impairments in cognition, behavioral functioning, sensory perception, and motor performance. Systemic inflammation has been identified as an important, potentially modifiable precursor of neurologic and neurodevelopmental impairments. Inflammation is typically measured by quantifying circulating cytokines and chemokines. However, it is unclear which specific cytokines/chemokines most consistently predict neurodevelopment in preterm infants. In this integrative review, we evaluated and analyzed the literature (N = 37 publications) to determine the cytokines/chemokines most predictive of neurodevelopment in preterm infants, the optimal timing for these measurements, and the ideal source for collecting cytokines/chemokines. Synthesis of the findings of these studies revealed that interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α collected during the first 3 weeks of life are most predictive of subsequent neurodevelopment. Methodological variation among studies hinders more specific analysis, including the evaluation of cytokine thresholds and meta-analyses, that would allow for the use of cytokines/chemokines to predict neurodevelopment. Future research should focus on identifying explicit cytokine values, specifically for IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8, and TNF-α, that are most predictive for identifying preterm infants most at risk of impairment, keeping in mind that longitudinal measures of cytokines/chemokines may be more predictive of future outcomes than single-time point measures.