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Background:   The mumps virus is frequently the causative agent in aseptic meningitis and mumps has still prevailed in Japan. We compared data obtained from patients with mumps meningitis and patients with aseptic meningitis caused by other viruses in order to identify mumps meningitis-specific cytokine/chemokine alterations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)., Methods:   We elucidated the cytokine/chemokine network based on the cytokine/chemokine profiles in CSF from children with mumps meningitis and meningitis due to other viral infections using multiplex cytokine measurement. Seventeen cytokines/chemokines, namely interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12 (p70), IL-13, IL-17, interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte monocyte colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1β (MIP-1β), were measured simultaneously in CSF supernatants from eight children with mumps meningitis, 11 children with other types of viral meningitis and eight children with fever without neurological complications such as convulsion., Results:   We found that IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13 and IFN-γ showed a statistically significant increase in CSF from mumps meningitis when compared to other types of viral meningitis and fever without neurological complications., Conclusion:   Mumps meningitis may induce a distinct immunological response when compared with other types of viral meningitis., (© 2011 The Authors.Pediatrics International © 2011 Japan Pediatric Society.)

It has been reported that active oxygen and/or free radicals are produced in the central nervous system (CNS) compartment in patients with bacterial meningitis, so it is supposed that the levels of endogenous antioxidative scavengers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are elevated as an adaptive reaction to bacterial meningitis, which exerts severe stress on the human body. We assumed that they are also elevated in patients with convulsive diseases. Nitric oxide (NO) and endogenous antioxidative scavengers (glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), (total) superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), and catalase) were measured in CSF from a group of child patients with various neurological diseases and a control group. NO, GSH, and GPX activities in CSF from the patients with convulsive diseases were significantly higher than in those with aseptic meningitis or in the controls. Furthermore, all parameters in CSF from patients with bacterial meningitis were significantly higher than in any other group. The present study suggests that oxidative stress may be associated with the pathophysiology of convulsion and that its clinical attenuation will lead to improvement in the prognosis for convulsive diseases.