Rheumatology Department, Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Princesa (IIS-IP), Madrid, Spain.
Immunology Department, Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Princesa (IIS-IP), Madrid, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 20;10(1):17799. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-74185-8.
Galectin 1 (Gal1) is a lectin with a wide cellular expression that functions as a negative regulator of the immune system in several animal models of autoimmune diseases. Identification of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has improved during the last decade, although there is still a need for biomarkers allowing an early diagnosis. In this regard, it has been recently proposed that Gal1 serum levels are increased in patients with RA compared to the general population. However, this topic is controversial in the literature. In this work, we provide additional information about the potential usefulness of Gal1 serum levels as a biomarker for RA diagnosis. We studied Gal1 serum and synovial fluid levels and clinical parameters in samples from 62 patients with early arthritis belonging to the PEARL study. In addition, 24 healthy donors were studied. We found that both patients fulfilling RA criteria and patients with undifferentiated arthritis showed higher Gal1 levels than healthy donors. Similar findings were observed in synovial fluid, which showed even higher levels than serum. However, we did not find correlation between Gal1 levels and disease activity or disability. Therefore, our results suggest that Gal1 could be a diagnostic but not a severity biomarker.
半乳糖凝集素 1（Gal1）是一种具有广泛细胞表达的凝集素，在几种自身免疫性疾病的动物模型中作为免疫系统的负调节剂发挥作用。尽管仍然需要能够进行早期诊断的生物标志物，但过去十年中类风湿关节炎（RA）患者的识别已经得到了改善。在这方面，最近有人提出，与普通人群相比，RA 患者的血清 Gal1 水平升高。然而，这一主题在文献中存在争议。在这项工作中，我们提供了有关 Gal1 血清水平作为 RA 诊断生物标志物的潜在用途的更多信息。我们研究了来自 PEARL 研究的 62 名早期关节炎患者的样本中的 Gal1 血清和滑液水平以及临床参数。此外，还研究了 24 名健康供体。我们发现，符合 RA 标准的患者和未分化关节炎患者的 Gal1 水平均高于健康供体。在滑液中也观察到了类似的发现，滑液中的水平甚至高于血清。然而，我们没有发现 Gal1 水平与疾病活动度或残疾之间的相关性。因此，我们的结果表明，Gal1 可能是一种诊断而非严重程度的生物标志物。
