Background: Experimental and clinical observations have indicated an association between perinatal brain damage and the occurrence of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 in the newborn's brain, circulation, and cerbrospinal fluid (CSF). Aim: To correlate the levels of the glial proteins glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S-100, those of the neuronal markers neuron specific enolase (NSE) and neurofilament (NFp), and those of the chemokine IL-8 to the levels of IL-6 in the cerebrospinal fluid of newborn term and preterm infants. Patients: Twenty-two infants (GA 25 to 42 weeks) were included. Five term babies had mild asphyxia, 6 had severe asphyxia and 6 served as normal controls. One of 5 preterm infants developed periventricular leukomalacia and one had an intraventricular hemorrhage grade 2. All lumbar punctures were performed to exclude meningitis. Results: In asphyxiated term infants and the preterm infants with brain damages all measured molecules were significantly higher than in controls. Highly significant spearman rank correlations were seen between IL-6 and GFAP(p=0.0002) and IL-6 and S-100 (p=0.0002). Also the neuronal markers NFp(p=0.012) and NSE (p=0.022) correlated with IL-6. Conclusion: Due to the small numbers of infant studied, conclusions should be made with caution. However, the present results support the hypotheses (a) that expression of all substances is a consequence of perinatal brain injury, or that (b) at least one of these substances might contribute to the brain tissue damage. More data are needed to clarify the mechanisms involved, and whether interventions might help suppress these mechanisms.