Cytokine pattern In peripheral blood of early and chronic rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract EN

Objective: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a T (helper) 1 Th1 cytokine profile (interleukin-2, interferon-?, tumor necrosis factor-?) has been described to be dominant over Th2 cytokines (IL-4, 5, 13, 10) in peripheral blood.

This profile is not always fixed and it changes with disease activity, but whether it can change over time is not well known.

We investigated Th1 (INF-?)/ Th2 (IL-10) cytokine balance in early and chronic RA patients for better understanding of the relation of cytokine balance to disease duration and activity.

Material: Twenty chronic RA patients and twenty early RA patients of less than one-year disease duration were evaluated for disease activity.

INF-? and IL-10 were assessed in peripheral blood by stimulated mononuclear cells and ELISA techniques in patients and in twenty healthy controls.

Results: Early RA patients were characterized by a significant elevation of INF-? (p<0.001) that correlated with disease activity, and INF?/IL-10 ratio was 4.7.

On the other hand, chronic RA patients were characterized by a significant elevation of IL-10 (p<0.001), which correlated with disease activity and duration, and INF?/IL10 ratio was 1.45.

Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the cytokine pattern between early and established RA cases that probably reflects differences in the pathogenesis and consequently affects diagnosis and therapeutic interventions according to the phase of the disease.