Association between IL-25, IL-33 and atopic dermatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate the association between IL-25, IL-33 and AD more generally. Methods: Databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, CNKI and Sinomed were searched. Based on the criteria, publications were collected. The evaluation of study quality was through Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Fixed or random effect model was selected according to the between-study heterogeneity to evaluate the association. The analysis procedure and the construction plots were using Review Manager 5.3 software. Results: Six studies were included. A total of 282 subjects were included from four studies to analyze the association between IL-25 and AD. The level of IL-25 was significantly elevated in AD patients, comparing with the control subjects (SMD = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.64, 1.14, p < 0.05). For IL-33, a total of 247 subjects were included from two studies, and the level of IL-33 was also significantly elevated in AD patients comparing to the control subjects (SMD = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.80, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The serum levels of IL-25, IL-33 are elevated in AD patients of this study. The IL-25 and IL-33 are significantly associated with the risk of AD. Further studies with larger samples, in multiple countries and focused on different age groups are need.