Association of increased serum IL-33 levels with clinical and laboratory characteristics of systemic lupus erythematosus in Chinese population

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by abnormal production of autoantibodies and proinflammatory cytokines. Although interleukin-33 (IL-33), a novel number of the IL-1 family, has been reported to have proinflammatory effects, the association of IL-33 with SLE has remained unknown. The aim of this study was to examine whether the serum IL-33 level is associated with SLE. A total of 70 patients with SLE were recruited. Sera from these patients were obtained at their visit and were compared to sera from 40 healthy controls or 28 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for IL-33 level. Furthermore, blood samples from patients with SLE were determined for various SLE-related laboratory variables, including blood routine, complements, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) and some autoantibodies. Serum IL-33 level was significantly increased in patients with SLE, compared with healthy controls, but was lower than that with RA. In patients with SLE, most clinical and laboratory characteristics did not correlate with serum IL-33 levels, with exceptions of thrombocytopenia, erythrocytopenia, anti-SSB antibody, ESR, CRP and IgA. By Spearman's correlation coefficient, patients with SLE showed close correlation of IL-33 with ESR, CRP and IgA, and by multivariate logistic regressions, patients with SLE showed significantly independent association of IL-33 with thrombocytopenia, erythrocytopenia and anti-SSB antibody. Our results suggest that IL-33 may play a role in acute phase of SLE, but it was not associated with course of the disease. Moreover, IL-33 may exert biologic effects on erythrocytes and platelets or their precursors in SLE.

IL-33: A Potential Therapeutic Target in Autoimmune Diseases

“…70 These findings seem to contradict with our viewpoint. However, most recently, Yang et al 71 detected the serum IL-33 levels in Chinese population; although serum IL-33 levels did not correlate with most clinical and laboratory characteristics, it was obviously increased in patients with SLE when compared with healthy donors. This was contrary to the observation of Mok et al The cause of this paradoxical pattern of change in IL-33 expression remains elusive; different assay kits and different populations may contribute to the disparity.…”

Severe Neutrophil-Dominated Inflammation and Enhanced Myelopoiesis in IL-33–Overexpressing CMV/IL33 Mice

“…Increased local or systemic IL-33 levels are observed in patients suffering from various immune-mediated diseases (33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43). To investigate the consequences of excessive IL-33 production by different cell types in vivo, we generated a line of genetically modified ROSA-stop-flox-IL33 mice allowing for conditional, Cre-dependent overexpression of full-length 30-kD IL-33.…”

The role of IL-33 in Behçet's disease

“…[7,15] SLE'li hastalarda yap›lan bir çal›flmada serum sST2 düzeyinin sa¤l›kl› kontrollere göre daha yüksek oldu¤u; ancak, IL-33 düzey-leri aras›nda fark olmad›¤› bulunurken baflka bir çal›flmada ise SLE hastalar›n›n serumunda artm›fl IL-33 düzeyi tespit edilmifltir. [7,16,17] Ayn› flekilde aktif AS hastalar›nda serum IL-33 düzeyi inaktif AS hastalar›na göre anlaml› olarak daha yüksek bulunmufltur. [8,18,19] Dev hücreli arterit hastalar› ile yap›lan bir çal›flmada da tutulan damarlarda artm›fl IL-33 ve ST2 ekspresyonu gösterilmifltir.…”