Bharwani Krishna D, Dirckx Maaike, Stronks Dirk L, Dik Willem A, Schreurs Marco W J, Huygen Frank J P M
Center for Pain Medicine, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Department of Immunology, Laboratory Medical Immunology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Mediators Inflamm. 2017;2017:2764261. doi: 10.1155/2017/2764261. Epub 2017 May 28.
The immune system has long been thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). However, not much is known about the role of the immune system and specifically T-cells in the onset and maintenance of this disease. In this study, we aimed to evaluate T-cell activity in CRPS by comparing blood soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels between CRPS patients and healthy controls. CRPS patients had statistically significant elevated levels of sIL-2R as compared to healthy controls (median sIL-2R levels: 4151 pg/ml (Q3 - Q1 = 5731 pg/ml - 3546 pg/ml) versus 1907 pg/ml (Q3 - Q1: 2206 pg/ml - 1374 pg/ml), < 0.001, resp.). Furthermore, sIL-2R level seems to be a good discriminator between CRPS patients and healthy controls with a high sensitivity (90%) and specificity (89.5%). Our finding indicates increased T-cell activity in patients with CRPS. This finding is of considerable relevance as it could point towards a T-cell-mediated inflammatory process in this disease. This could pave the way for new anti-inflammatory therapies in the treatment of CRPS. Furthermore, sIL-2R could be a promising new marker for determining inflammatory disease activity in CRPS.
长期以来，人们一直认为免疫系统参与了复杂性区域疼痛综合征（CRPS）的病理生理过程。然而，关于免疫系统特别是T细胞在该疾病的发生和维持中的作用，我们所知甚少。在本研究中，我们旨在通过比较CRPS患者与健康对照者的血清单可溶性白细胞介素-2受体（sIL-2R）水平，来评估CRPS患者的T细胞活性。与健康对照者相比，CRPS患者的sIL-2R水平有统计学意义的升高（sIL-2R水平中位数：4151 pg/ml（四分位距Q3 - Q1 = 5731 pg/ml - 3546 pg/ml），而健康对照者为1907 pg/ml（Q3 - Q1：2206 pg/ml - 1374 pg/ml），P < 0.001）。此外，sIL-2R水平似乎是CRPS患者与健康对照者之间的良好鉴别指标，具有高敏感性（90%）和特异性（89.5%）。我们的研究结果表明CRPS患者的T细胞活性增加。这一发现具有相当重要的意义，因为它可能指向该疾病中T细胞介导的炎症过程。这可能为CRPS治疗中的新抗炎疗法铺平道路。此外，sIL-2R可能是确定CRPS炎症疾病活动的一个有前景的新标志物。
