Serum and synovial fluid insulin like growth factor-1 and its binding protein-3 in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract EN

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and its binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in human synovial fluid play an important role in maintaining articular cartilage metabolism.

In this study, we measured serum and synovial fluid (SF) concentrations of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in 20 rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA) and 10 matched controls (with traumatic knee effusion) using radioimmunoassay.

Also, we tried to correlate serum and synovial levels with each other and with disease activity and severity measures.

Our results showed a significant increase in synovial fluid level of both IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in RA patients as compared to controls.

Serum IGF-1 correlated with synovial fluid level but serum IGFBP-3 did not correlate with synovial fluid level.

Disease activity markers correlated significantly with synovial fluid IGF-12 and IGFBP-3 levels, but did not show significant correlation with their serum level.

In conclusion the pattern of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in SF differs in inflammatory versus non-inflammatory joints.