Study On The Clinical Significance Of Anti-collagen Type Ⅱ Antibodies In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis And The Relationship Between TNF-α And IL-6 And Antibodies

To determine the positivity and clinical significance of antibodies to typeⅡcollagen (CⅡ).The anti-CⅡantibodies were measured by ELISA and demonstrated by Western Blot and double immunol diffusion in sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatatic disease. The laboratory and clinical features were analyzed retrospectively through clinical database. The sensitivity and specificity of the anti-CⅡantibodies were 37.8% and 76.4% in patients with RA. Prevalences of the anti-CⅡantibodies were 38.1%, 31.3%, 25%, 11.1% in SLE, pSS, OA, Healthy control, respectively. No statistical difference was found between RA and other group. The results suggest that anti-CⅡantibodies could be assayed other than RA. The titers of RF in anti-CⅡantibodies positive patients were significant higher than patients with negative anti-CⅡantibodies(P<0.05). There were no statistical difference among age, sex, clinical manifestation and blood rutine examination in anti-CⅡantibodies positive patients and negative patients. The positive rate of the anti-CⅡantibodies were also higher in patients with RA than patients with negative CCP, HRF, RA33, AKA and APF. The results suggest that anti-collagen typeⅡantibodies could be a method of diagnosis of RA.Otherwise, there were several studies demonstrated that cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of RA. To study the correlation between the cytokine and clinical and laboratory indices and to determine the relationship between the anti-CⅡantibodies and cytokine in patients with RA, we measured the levels of TNF-αand IL-6 in 74 RA and 60 healthy individuals. The titers of TNF-αand IL-6 were 754.36±214.12ng/L, 1225.58±876ng/L, respectively. The significant difference was found between the levels of TNF-αand IL-6 in RA patients and normal subjects (P<0.01). There were association between the anti-CⅡantibodies and TNF-αand IL-6, suggest that anti-CⅡantibodies may be antibodies provoking inflammatory responses in the joint in RA.Hence, assaying TNF-αand IL-6 may be of help in the diagnosis of the degree of disease activity.