Ketamine Does Not Change Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxicity in Patients Undergoing Cancer Surgery: Basic Experiment and Clinical Trial

Figure 4

The interleukin- (IL-) 6 values in the combined present and previous trials. Blood sampling was conducted before the initiation of anesthesia (baseline), at 6 h, and at 24 h after the anesthesia induction. A chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay was used to measure serum IL-6 values according to the manufacturer’s protocol. The serum IL-6 levels in the control and ketamine groups changed in essentially the same manner and were similar at each time point. Compared to each group’s baseline value, the serum IL-6 values were similarly increased up to a peak value at 6 h ( vs. baseline) and then decreased slightly, but the significant increase still existed at 24 h ( vs. baseline). Thus, there was no significant difference in the IL-6 values of the ketamine and control groups at the baseline ( pg/ml vs.  pg/ml, ), at 6 h ( pg/ml vs.  pg/ml, ), or at 24 h ( pg/ml vs.  pg/ml, ), respectively.