Association between inflammatory cytokines and liver functions in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Abstract EN

Background : rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with abnormal liver tests, and the medications used for RA are often hepatotoxic.

therefore, this study aimed to investigate an association between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and liver function tests in RA patients.

methods : in this descriptive cross-sectional study, 88 RA patients were included, 84 of them were women and 4 men, aged 21–81 years.

Serum interleukin-10 (IL-10), interleukin-17 (IL-17), Osteopontin (OPN) were measured and liver function tests were conducted.

results : the frequency of RA was higher among adults aged >41 years (72 [81.8%]) than young adults aged ≤41 years (16 [18.2%]).

RA was more common in women (84 [95.5%]) than in men (4 [4.5%]) – approximately 21:1-fold.

Young adults had higher abnormal IL-10 than adult RA patients (OR = 3.72, p-value 0.044).

abnormal IL-17 (OR = 5.67, p-value 0.034) was found to be increased in young-adult RA patients.

No association was observed between age and OPN and between the duration of disease and IL-10, IL-17, and OPN.

similarly, no association was noted between the types of treatment and IL-10, IL-17, and OPN, nor between IL-10, IL-17, OPN and liver parameters (AST, ALT, ALP, ALB, TP, and GGT).

conclusion : pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines are not associated with abnormal liver functions, as has been demonstrated in RA patients.