Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Lupus Clinic, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
J Immunol Res. 2017;2017:4570715. doi: 10.1155/2017/4570715. Epub 2017 Dec 19.
Pregnancy problems are common in patients with rheumatic disease; indeed, autoimmune disorders and autoantibodies can affect pregnancy progress and lead to maternal complications. Recent studies have highlighted a close association between HMGB1, chronic inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. Thus, in this investigation, we analyzed serum levels of HMGB1, an alarmin which plays a pivotal role in inducing and enhancing immune cell function. Sera from 30 patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (11 primary and 19 secondary APS), 35 subjects with pregnancy morbidity, and 30 healthy women were analysed for HMGB1 and its putative receptor RAGE (sRAGE) by Western blot and for TNF- by ELISA. Results revealed that APS patients showed significantly increased serum levels of HMGB1, sRAGE, and the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-, as compared to healthy women. However, also, the pregnancy morbidity subjects showed significantly increased levels of HMGB1 and sRAGE as well as TNF- compared to healthy women. Our findings suggest that in subjects with pregnancy morbidity, including obstetric APS, elevated levels of HMGB1/sRAGE may represent an alarm signal, indicating an increase of proinflammatory triggers. Further studies are needed to evaluate the role of HMGB1/sRAGE as a possible tool to evaluate the risk stratification of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
妊娠问题在风湿性疾病患者中很常见；事实上，自身免疫性疾病和自身抗体可影响妊娠进展并导致母体并发症。最近的研究强调了 HMGB1、慢性炎症和自身免疫性疾病之间的密切关联。因此，在这项研究中，我们分析了血清 HMGB1 水平，HMGB1 是一种警报素，在诱导和增强免疫细胞功能方面发挥着关键作用。通过 Western blot 分析了 30 例抗磷脂综合征（11 例原发性和 19 例继发性 APS）患者、35 例妊娠并发症患者和 30 名健康女性的 HMGB1 及其假定受体 RAGE（sRAGE），并通过 ELISA 分析了 TNF-。结果显示，与健康女性相比，APS 患者的血清 HMGB1、sRAGE 和促炎细胞因子 TNF-水平显著升高。然而，妊娠并发症患者的 HMGB1 和 sRAGE 以及 TNF-水平也明显高于健康女性。我们的研究结果表明，在妊娠并发症患者中，包括产科 APS，HMGB1/sRAGE 水平升高可能代表警报信号，表明促炎触发因素增加。需要进一步研究来评估 HMGB1/sRAGE 作为评估不良妊娠结局风险分层的可能工具的作用。
