Department of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 12613, Menoufya, Egypt.
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2011 Nov;50(11):2108-12. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/ker297. Epub 2011 Sep 2.
To evaluate the clinical significance of anti-angiogenic receptor cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36) in serum of patients with SSc.
We studied 47 SSc patients (28 with lcSSC and 19 with dcSSC) and 38 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Demographic, clinical, autoantibodies and serological data were prospectively assessed. Peripheral vascular affection was classified into mild, moderate, severe or end-stage based on a vascular severity scale. Soluble CD36 (sCD36) serum levels were measured using ELISA.
Serum sCD36 levels were significantly higher in patients with SSc compared with healthy controls (P = 0.045). When the patients were divided into clinical subsets, sCD36 was higher in lcSSc than in healthy controls (P = 0.03). Levels of sCD36 were found to be positively correlated with pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and negatively correlated with percentage diffusing lung capacity for carbon monoxide (DL(CO)). In the multivariate analysis, 50% of the variation of sCD36 levels could be explained by elevated PASP (0.000), telangiectasias (0.026) and increasing vascular severity (P = 0.003).
Serum sCD36 levels were higher in SSc patients (particularly the limited subset) than in healthy controls and were found to be correlated with PASP and vascular severity. We conclude that sCD36 may be a marker for elevated PASP and vascular involvement in SSc. To confirm our results we propose that larger scale, multicentre studies with longer evaluation periods are needed.
评估血管生成受体 CD36 在系统性硬化症（SSc）患者血清中的临床意义。
我们研究了 47 例 SSc 患者（28 例局限型和 19 例弥漫型）和 38 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者。前瞻性评估了人口统计学、临床、自身抗体和血清学数据。根据血管严重程度量表，将外周血管病变分为轻度、中度、重度或终末期。采用 ELISA 法检测可溶性 CD36（sCD36）血清水平。
与健康对照组相比，SSc 患者的血清 sCD36 水平显著升高（P = 0.045）。当患者分为临床亚型时，局限型 SSc 患者的 sCD36 水平高于健康对照组（P = 0.03）。sCD36 水平与肺动脉收缩压（PASP）呈正相关，与一氧化碳弥散量（DL（CO））的百分比呈负相关。在多变量分析中，sCD36 水平的 50%变化可以用升高的 PASP（0.000）、毛细血管扩张（0.026）和血管严重程度增加（P = 0.003）来解释。
SSc 患者（特别是局限型）的血清 sCD36 水平高于健康对照组，且与 PASP 和血管严重程度相关。我们得出结论，sCD36 可能是 SSc 患者 PASP 升高和血管受累的标志物。为了证实我们的结果，我们建议需要进行更大规模、多中心、更长时间评估的研究。
