Interleukin-22 and Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Associated Factor 1 (TRAF1) in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Correlation with Disease Activity

Abstract

In autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cytokines play a central role in initiating and maintaining diverse immune and inflammatory responses. Interleukin 22 (IL-22), a member of IL-10 cytokine family, has been believed to be an important player in regulating inflammatory responses associated with many autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to detect the role of IL-22 and Tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor 1 (TRAF1) in patients with RA and SLE and their correlation with disease activity. The current study was conducted on 70 RA, 64 SLE patients and 45control subjects from Egyptian population, using ELISA to assess IL-22 in culture supernatants of cultured lymphocytes and TaqMan genotyping assay for TRAF1 (rs10818488). A significant increase in IL-22 levels in both RA and SLE patients than control group (p<0.001 for each) was detected before and after lymphocyte stimulation. Also, a significant differences in A allele frequency with RA patients was found (P=0.030) indicating that TRAF1 could be considered as a susceptibility gene to RA in the Egyptian population. The A allele of TRAF1 was significantly increased RA patients with positive rheumatoid factor (RF) (p=<0.001) and/or anti-CCP antibodies (p=0.034), this could not be demonstrated in SLE patients or controls(P=0.750). Also, IL-22 level correlated positively with disease activity in RA and SLE patients which may rise a possible role in the pathogenesis of both conditions. [Egypt J Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, 2016; 4(1): 49-58]

Plasma interleukin-22 level, variants in interleukin-22 gene polymorphism, and the severity of systemic lupus erythematosus among Egyptian pediatric and adolescents

“…2 Cytokines take part in initiating and progressing several innate, adaptive immune, and inflammatory responses in autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. 3,4 Inflammatory cytokines are the most important group of compounds participating in the manner of development of lupus. The connection between SLE and autoimmunity and inflammation cleared the important role of genes that impacted in the cytokine web.…”