Cytokine profile in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: Relationship with disease activity and autoantibody levels (preliminary results)

The aim – to study the serum level of cytokines, chemokines, growth factors in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in comparison with healthy volunteers to identify promising indicators for assessing disease activity and the development of organ damage.

Material and methods. The analysis included 139 patients (123 (88%) women and 16 (12%) men) with a reliable diagnosis of SLE. The median duration of the disease was 3.0 [0.3; 12.0] years, SLEDAI-2K (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000) – 7 [4; 11] points, SDI (SLICC (Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics) Damage Index) – 0 [0; 1] points. The study of 48 cytokines in blood serum was carried out by the method of multiplex immune analysis based on suspension microarray technology xMAP (Bio-Plex® 200 Pro Human Cytokine Screening Panel, 48-Plex; Bio-Rad Laboratories, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The control group consisted of 13 healthy donors, comparable in gender and age with the examined patients.

Results. In patients with SLE, compared with healthy donors, there was a higher level of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), interferon (IFN) γ, interleukin (IL) 6, IL-8, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP) 1, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP) 1α, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), IL-18, interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), MCP-3, macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), MIG (monokine induced by IFN-γ) (p<0.05). In the group of patients with nephritis (n=40), there was a higher concentration of IFN-γ, IL-7, VEGF, IFN-α2, M-CSF in contrast to patients without nephritis (p<0.05). Conclusion. In the sera of patients with SLE, a higher level of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, colony-stimulating, stromal and angiogenic factors is noted; M-CSF probably plays an important role in the development of nephritis. Further studies are required to improve our understanding of the role of cytokine profile parameters in the pathogenesis of SLE.

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