Study On The Clinical And Pathogenic Significance Of CD146 Expression In Patients With Systemic Vasculitis

BackgroundThe targets of systemic vasculitis are all types of blood vessels.Dysfunction of vascular endothelial cell and activation of leucocytes all correlate with activation of adhesion molecules(AMs).So they are important in the pathogenesis of vasculitis. AMs such as ICAM-1 and CD 11/CD 18 corralete with disease activity in vasculitis.anti-CD11/CD 18 and anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibody have been used in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases and show exciting effects such as block AMs and improve clinical manifestations.Recently,studies on meaning of circulating endothelial cells(CECs) in diseases have increased in all kind of fields.One finding is that CECs increase significantly in active systemic small vasculitis and can serve as a new marker in disease activity. CD 146 is a new AMs of EC.But its role in the activation of EC is not clear. AA98,a momoclonal antibody to CD146,has been raised by Chinese Academy of Science,Center of Molecular Biology.It shows prominent abilities to inhibit proliferation and migration of HUVECs ,angiogenesis and tumor growth. So CD 146 may be involved in angiogenesis. It is reported that soluble CD146(sCD146) is increased in CRF and NS ,and correlate with dysfunction of EC.Elevated sCD146 is associated with increased expression of CD 146 in kidney.It has also been reported that sCD146 in synovial fluid of Rheumatoid Arthritis is also increased and correlate with angiogenesis of synovium.Another report is that activated T lymphocytes express CD146.We deduce that CD146 is not only a active AMs of EC,but also probably participate in the activation and migration of T lymphacytes and take part in the pathogenesis of inflammation especially vasculitis.Objective...