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Identification of elevated cytokine levels may be the key to predicting risk for RA
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Swedish investigators have recently identified several cytokine levels that significantly increase years before the development of rheumatoid arthritis.
“Our findings present an opportunity for better predicting the risk of developing [rheumatoid arthritis] RA and possibly preventing disease progression,” Solbritt Rantapää-Dahlqvist, MD, lead researcher of the study stated in a press release.
To determine whether cytokines, cytokine-related factors and chemokines are upregulated before the onset of RA and to determine which ones are involved, Rantapää-Dahlqvist and colleagues conducted a nested-case control study. They analyzed blood samples from the following three groups:
- 86 individuals who were thought to be pre-RA patients and had no appearance of RA symptoms;
- 69 former pre-RA patients after the onset of the condition; and
- 256 matched control subjects.
The investigators monitored the consecutive time-dependent involvement of the participants’ immune systems for disease development and progression. In addition, they measured the plasma levels of 30 cytokines, related factors and chemokines. Participants who later developed RA were separated from control subjects mainly by the presence of Th1-, Th2- and Treg cell-related cytokines. The investigators used chemokines, stromal cell-derived cytokines and angiogentic-related markers to weed out patients after the development of RA from individuals before to the onset of the condition.
“We observed a clear relationship between cytokines related not only to Th1, Th2, and Treg cells but also to Th17 and the presence of anti-CCP [Anti-cyclic Citrullinated Peptid] antibodies, thereby supporting the concept that the immune system was already stimulated and disease was developing toward RA,” Rantapää-Dahlqvist stated in the release.
- Reference:
Kokkonen H, Söderström I, Rocklöv J, et al. Up-regulation of cytokines ad chemokines predates the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. Arth & Rheum. Published Online: January 28, 2010.