Elevated neopterin levels in patients with Kawasaki disease correlate with fever and are indicative of macrophage activation

Elevated serum levels of soluble interleukin‐2 receptor in juvenile dermatomyositis

“…In the present study, we demonstrated that serum levels of sIL‐2R are elevated during the active phase of JDM and decline with clinical remission. A similar tendency was observed for neopterin, which is an established marker for disease activity in both juvenile and adult DM 4–7 . These findings indicate that the serial measurement of serum sIL‐2R levels, as well as neopterin levels is useful to evaluate disease activity in each case, as described in other collagen vascular diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis 9 …”

“…Although the pathogenesis of JDM remains to be elucidated, pathologic findings of the skin and muscular lesions are considered to be vasculopathy associated with cellular infiltration and deposition of immunoglobulin, suggesting that both cell‐mediated and humoral immunity are involved in the development of JDM 3 . Recent studies have demonstrated that the number of peripheral blood CD19 + B cells and serum levels of neopterin, a marker for activated macrophages, correlate well with disease activity of JDM 3–6 . However, studies on serum levels of soluble interleukin‐2 receptor (sIL‐2R), a marker for T cell activation, have been described only in adult DM 7,8 .…”

TNFα-308A allele in juvenile dermatomyositis: Association with increased production of tumor necrosis factor α, disease duration, and pathologic calcifications

“…Standard determinations of the muscle-derived enzymes creatine phosphokinase (CPK), aldolase, aspartate aminotransferase/serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (AST/SGOT), and lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH), obtained at diagnosis, are presented in Table 1 (see Results). At CMMC, other special tests were performed to assess the patient's response to therapy; these were measurement of neopterin, a T cell-dependent macrophage-derived product (Immunotest Neopterin; Henning Berlin, DRG International, Mountainside, NJ) (19,20), and flow cytometric analysis of PBMC for the percentage of CD19ϩ B cells (21,22). In addition, values for the von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF: Ag, by quantitative immunoelectrophoresis and Laurell's test) (23) were obtained as described in other studies of juvenile DM (24)(25)(26).…”

Correlation of serum neopterin concentrations with disease activity in juvenile dermatomyositis.

“…Serum samples obtained from 28 healthy children (median age 9 5 years, range [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] years), admitted to hospital for bone marrow donation or for minor operations, were used as controls. Permission to draw extra blood Correlation of serum neopterin concentrations with disease activity in juvenile dermatomyositis Serum neopterin (ng/ml) from patients and controls using a commercially available radioimmunoassay according to the instructions provided by the manufacturer (Sorin).…”