The Serum Levels And Clinical Significance Of HMGB1 In Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective To proceed a comparison study of the serum levels of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to investigate the role of HMGB1 in the pathogenesis of SLE.Methods 60 patients with SLE were selected randomly(male 4,female56,age range 14-72 yr, mean age 34±13 yr).The 60 patients all met the diagnose criteria of American College of Rheumatology(ACR)about SLE .The clinical symptoms and the serologic index of every patients were recorded respectively. According systemic lupus erythematousus activity index (SLEDAI),we make the SLE patients into two groups, active groups(SLEDAI≥10) and inactive groups(SLEDAI<10),each 30 patients. AS controls,20 healthy volunteers (male 2,female18,age range18-56yr, mean age 32±14) were also tested.All the patients had not taken infection in 1 month before drawing blood.The serum concentration of HMGB1,anti-dsDNA,anti-RNP,AnuA ,anti-C1q and so on were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) .Results In comparison to control group,the serum level of HMGB-1 in the SLE patients was higher(P<0.001).The serum level of HMGB-1 in the active group was significantly higher than inactive group and health controls(P<0.001). There were no significant deference between inactive group and health controls(P>0.05).There were significant contrast of the serum level of HMGB-1 between the aleucocytosis group and the non-aleucocytosis group,also the LN group and non-LN group(P<0.05).The serum level of HMGB-1 of LN group had positive correlation with erythra group(r=0.734, P<0.001).The serum level of HMGB-1 of SLE group correlated positively with SLEDAI,24 hours urine protein, anti-dsDNA, anti-C1q, anti-nuclear body(P<0.05) and negatively with complement C4(P=0.005).No significant correlation was fond between the level of HMGB1 and other SLE serological parameters including anti-sm, anti-RNP, anti-SSA, complement C3 ,ESR, CRP, percentage of lymph cell. Infection was no correlation with the level of HMGB1.The level ofα1-microglobul in the urine had positively correlated with the level of serum HMGB-1(r=0.630,P=0.013).Conclusion These results suggest that HMGB1 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE as a proinflammatory cytokine.