Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, 37516Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Immunology, Aziz Sancar Institute of Experimental Medicine, 37516Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Lupus. 2022 Apr;31(5):555-564. doi: 10.1177/09612033221086123. Epub 2022 Mar 6.
We aim to investigate the association between serum B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) levels with disease activity and clinical findings in SLE patients.
Seventy-nine patients with SLE and 27 healthy controls were included into the study. Serum BAFF and APRIL levels were measured by using ELISA. In 19 patients with active disease at the time of the assessment, BAFF/APRIL levels were reassessed after 6 months of follow-up and disease activity was evaluated by using SLEDAI-2K. The relationship between renal histopathology index scores and lupus nephritis (LN) classes with serum BAFF/APRIL levels was examined in 16 patients who had recent renal involvement and underwent biopsy during the study.
Although both BAFF/APRIL levels were higher in patients with SLE compared to the control group ( < 0.001), no correlation was found between BAFF/APRIL levels and SLEDAI scores. Serum BAFF levels were higher in patients with renal disease activity ( = 0.01), and there was a significant correlation between APRIL levels and proteinuria (r = 0.42, = 0.02). A weak inverse correlation was observed between BAFF and C3 levels (r = 0.25, = 0.02). No correlation was found between BAFF/APRIL levels and renal SLEDAI scores, renal histopathology, activity, and chronicity index scores. In the active disease group after treatment, there was no significant change in serum BAFF levels, but a significant increase in serum APRIL levels was observed.
These results suggest that both cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of SLE and that serum BAFF can be valuable as a biomarker in SLE especially in patients with renal activity.
我们旨在研究血清 B 细胞激活因子 (BAFF) 和 A 增殖诱导配体 (APRIL) 水平与 SLE 患者疾病活动度和临床特征的关系。
本研究纳入了 79 例 SLE 患者和 27 名健康对照者。采用 ELISA 法检测血清 BAFF 和 APRIL 水平。在评估时患有活动期疾病的 19 例患者中，在 6 个月的随访后重新评估 BAFF/APRIL 水平，并采用 SLEDAI-2K 评估疾病活动度。在 16 例近期有肾脏受累且在研究期间进行肾活检的患者中，检查了肾组织病理学指数评分与狼疮肾炎 (LN) 分级与血清 BAFF/APRIL 水平之间的关系。
尽管 SLE 患者的血清 BAFF/APRIL 水平均高于对照组（<0.001），但 BAFF/APRIL 水平与 SLEDAI 评分之间无相关性。有肾脏疾病活动的患者血清 BAFF 水平较高（=0.01），且 APRIL 水平与蛋白尿呈显著正相关（r=0.42，=0.02）。BAFF 与 C3 水平之间存在弱负相关（r=0.25，=0.02）。BAFF/APRIL 水平与肾脏 SLEDAI 评分、肾组织病理学、活动和慢性指数评分之间均无相关性。在治疗后疾病活动组中，血清 BAFF 水平无显著变化，但 APRIL 水平显著升高。
这些结果表明，这两种细胞因子均参与了 SLE 的发病机制，血清 BAFF 可能是 SLE 尤其是伴有肾脏活动患者的有价值的生物标志物。
