Exp Mol Med.  2004 Feb;36(1):13-22.

Serum concentrations of soluble 4-1BB and 4-1BB ligand correlated with the disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis

• Jung HW
• Choi SW
• Choi JI
• Kwon BS

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease whose etiopathogenesis is not well understood. Although soluble (s) forms of 4-1BB (s4-1BB) and 4-1BB legand (s4-1BBL) have been detected in the sera of RA patients, their significance is not known. We compared the serum levels of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL in RA patients with those in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Behcet's disease (BD) patients. Serum levels of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL were significantly higher in RA patients compared with healthy controls, SLE or BD patients, and the abundance was correlated with disease severity in patients with RA. The serum levels of s4-1BB in RA patients were inversely corroborated with 4-1BB expression levels on activated T lymphocytes. In addition, there was a correlation between serum levels of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL. The augmented secretion of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL levels into the serum may reflect the clinical symptoms of RA and levels of s4-1BB and s4-1BBL in sera at the time of diagnosis may be indicative of the severity and outcome of RA.

Keyword

autoimmune diseases; Behcet syndrome; biological markers; lupus erythematosus systemic; rheumatoid arthritis; serum

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Antigens, CD/metabolism
Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*blood/drug therapy/immunology/*pathology
Behcet Syndrome/blood/immunology
Comparative Study
Female
Humans
Immunosuppressive Agents/metabolism/therapeutic use
Leukocytes, Mononuclear/metabolism
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/blood/immunology
Male
Middle Aged
Random Allocation
Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor/*blood
Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor/*blood
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Severity of Illness Index
Statistics
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/*metabolism