Serum circulating ICAM-1 levels are not useful to indicate active vasculitis or early renal allograft rejection.

During inflammation, activated vascular endothelial cells and other cell types express various adhesion molecules which facilitate binding of circulating leukocytes. Serum concentration of circulating adhesion molecule ICAM-1 (c-ICAM-1) is supposed to reflect the degree of this activation. In order to evaluate the usefulness of c-ICAM-1 serum levels for assessment of disease activity in various vasculitic disorders, we examined 23 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n = 9). Wegener's granulomatosis (WG, n = 6), Goodpasture syndrome (GP, n = 6) and microscopic polyarteritis (MP, n = 2). Disease activity was defined by clinical criteria and by conventional laboratory data. Circulating ICAM-1 concentrations were measured during periods of active clinical vasculitis and on clinical remission. In a second part of the study, we examined whether or not c-ICAM-1 might be helpful in diagnosing acute allograft rejection early after kidney transplantation. After cadaveric kidney transplantation thirteen patients were included. Serum probes were gathered firstly after transplantation, secondly at time of histologically proven allograft rejection and finally after successful anti-rejection therapy and restored transplant function. c-ICAM-1 levels in healthy volunteers (n = 10) were 270 +/- 47 ng/ml (mean +/- SD). Patients with active vasculitis had mean serum levels of 509 +/- 71 ng/ml (SLE), 594 +/- 118 ng/ml (WG), 472 +/- 126 ng/ml (GP) and 498 ng/ml (MP) (mean +/- SD). In clinical remission, mean serum concentrations were found to be 500 +/- 99 ng/ml (SLE), 597 +/- 84 ng/ml (WG), 782 +/- 163 ng/ml (GP) and 594 ng/ml (MP) (mean +/- SD).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)