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Children with JIA, enthesitis-related arthritis have significantly higher serum tenascin-C levels
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Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis with enthesitis-related arthritis were observed to have significantly higher levels of tenascin-C than healthy young adults, according to researchers.
The researchers studied 80 children diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) based on the International League of Associations for Rheumatology criteria and 15 newly diagnosed children who completed follow-up at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute in Lucknow, India between September 2013 and March 2014. Each patient had active arthritis, and 63% showed enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA). All patients were assessed using the physician's global assessment (PGA), duration of morning stiffness, tender joint (TJC) and swollen joint (SJC) and 68 damages joint counts (DJC-68), the Maastricht Ankylosing Spondylitis Enthesitis score, presence of inflammation or sacroiliitis and other clinical characteristics. Twenty-five healthy young adults were selected for comparison.
Laboratory tests included blood analysis of acute-phase proteins, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), in addition to analysis of DNA, toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and tenascin-C (TNC).
Most patients (89%) were HLA-B27-positive, and TNC levels were found to be significantly raised in children with enthesitis compared with the group of healthy young adults or children with lower disease activity. HLA-B27-positive patients had higher median levels of TNC compared with those without, and the results were unaffected by age, according to the researchers.
Levels of TNC also correlated with higher disease activity assessments such as PGA, TJC, CRP and ESR. Treatment with NSAIDs reduced TNC levels in patients who completed 3-month follow-up, the researchers reported. - by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The research was supported by a grant from an unnamed source to one of the authors.
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