The Study Of Plasma IL-18 And OPN In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective: To explore the pathological role of interleukin 18 (IL-18) and osteopontin (OPN) in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and analyze their relationships with activity indexes of RA, and study their roles in RA joint destruction.Methods: 65 patients with RA (ages 18-65 years old) were outpatients and inpatients in our hospital from March 2007 to February 2008, of which there were 37 cases of activities, 28 cases were of remission. The patients enrolled in this study met the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The core indexes of RA clinical evaluation were recommended by ACR. We took the hands X-ray of RA patients and used RA X-ray phase standards recommended by ACR. 22 normal controls were all from the health examinations in our hospital. We detected the levels of IL-18 and OPN with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results: (1) The levels of plasma IL-18 and OPN in RA patients were significantly higher than that in the healthy controls; (2) The levels of plasma IL-18 and OPN in RA patients with activities were significantly higher than that in RA remission group and the healthy controls with statistical significance; The levels of plasma IL-18 and OPN in RA patients with activities had positive correlativity with tender joint counts, swollen joint counts, morning stiffness, patients' pain score, patients' disease activities score, doctors' disease activities score, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), cross-reactoin protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF), Ritchie index, disease activity score (DAS), health asscessment questionnaire (HAQ) , and had negative correlativity with grip strength; (3) The levels of plasma IL-18 and OPN in RA patients at different X-ray stages were significantly different, furthermore, the levels of plasma IL-18 and OPN between phase I and Phase II, phase II and phase III, phase III and phase IV were statistically significant; (4) The plasma IL-18 and OPN levels in RA patients with out of joints damages were significantly higher than that without out of joints damages; (5) There was no relationship between IL-18 and OPN levels in the plasma of these RA patients.Conclusions: (1) The plasma IL-18 and OPN levels in RA were significantly higher than that in the healthy controls group, this indicates that the plasma IL-18 and OPN play important roles in the pathogenesis of RA; (2) The plasma IL-18 and OPN can be used as indicators to monitor disease activity. (3) The plasma IL-18 and OPN may be involved in the joint destruction in RA. (4) The plasma IL-18 and OPN may be involved in out of joint damages in RA. (5) The plasma IL-18 and OPN may play roles in the pathogenesis of RA in different ways.