Increased platelet activation markers in rheumatoid arthritis: Are they related with subclinical atherosclerosis?

Abstract

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular mortality is increased in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. We evaluated the association of inflammatory response with platelet, endothelial, coagulation activation parameters; and subclinical atherosclerosis in RA patients. We included 27 RA patients (21 female; six male) and 19 healthy subjects (14 female; five male). Disease activity score (DAS28) in RA patients was calculated; and patients were divided into two groups as active and inactive. Flow cytometry was used to determine platelet CD62P expression, platelet microparticles (PMP), platelet-monocyte (PMC) and platelet-neutrophil complexes (PNC). Plasma E-selectin, thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complex, and serum sCD40L levels were determined by ELISA. The intima-media thickness (IMT) of carotid arteries was determined by B-mode ultrasonography. In RA patients, platelet CD62P expression (p < 0.001), PMC (p = 0.037) and sCD40L (p < 0.001) levels were increased when compared to the control group. PNC (p = 0.07) and TAT levels (p = 0.1) were non-significantly higher, and PMP level (p = 0.075) was nonsignificantly lower in RA patients. Soluble E-selectin level was significantly higher in the active RA group than in the inactive RA group (p = 0.009). There was no correlation between carotid IMT and activity markers, the evaluated parameters (p > 0.05).The increase in markers of active platelets, CD62P and sCD40L, and PMC levels might be associated with the increased cardiovascular mortality in RA. Nevertheless, none of these parameters were associated with carotid IMT: this suggests that one cross-sectional value might not be a good marker for atherosclerosis

Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of different Tripterygium preparations on collagen-induced arthritis in rats

“…As shown in Table 3, there was not significantly change in the concentration of Hb and WBC number from different TPs-treated rats compared with the normal and H 2 O-treated groups. However, compared with the normal rats, the RBC number decreased significantly, in contrast, the platelet (PLT) number increased significantly, which are commonly found in RA patients (Vreugdenhil and Swaak, 1990;Pamuk et al, 2008). With TPs treatment, the decreased number of RBC not only increased but also restored to the nearly normal level in TP-C and TP-Dtreated rats, and PLT number decreased significantly in TP-C and TP-D treatment to nearly normal levels in vivo (Table 3).…”

“…As PLT is considered as an activator in inflammation and pathogenesis of RA (Milovanovic et al, 2004;Pamuk et al, 2008;Matowicka-Karna et al, 2013), indicating that TP-C and TP-D could restore PLT number to nearly normal level, which might be benefit for reducing inflammation. These results suggested that four tested TPs have little affect for Hb concentration and WBC number, but TP-C and TP-D show advantage of RA treatment via restoring PLT and RBC number to normal level as well as inhibition of inflammation simultaneously in vivo.…”

Platelets promote allergic asthma through the expression of CD154

“…By using different animal models, studies have shown the indispensable role of platelets in the initiation and progression of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including sepsis, 12 atherosclerosis, 13 autoimmune myocarditis, 14 systemic lupus erythematosus, 15 rheumatoid arthritis [16][17][18][19] and so on. Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory pathological condition with critical involvement of T helper 2 (Th2) cells that is harmful to human health throughout the world.…”

Does anti-tnf therapy cause any change in platelet activation in ankylosing spondylitis patients?

“…Until now, there has been no study evaluating PMC and PNC in AS. Some studies reported that PMC and PNC were elevated in RA [11,21]. Until a short time ago, the gold standard for platelet activation was accepted to be P-selectin expression; but, it was shown that degranulated platelets lost surface P-selectin [19].…”