Wollheim F A, Eberhardt K B, Johnson U, Saxne T
Department of Rheumatology, Lund University, Sweden.
Br J Rheumatol. 1997 Aug;36(8):847-9. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/36.8.847.
The carriage of a characteristic sequence of amino acids at position 67-72 in the third hypervariable region of the HLA DRB1 chain has been linked to susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Whether this epitope is also a predictor of more severe disease remains controversial. Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) is a protein, the serum levels of which have been found to correlate with large joint destructive disease in previous work. In this paper, we compare DRB1* typing and serum COMP levels in a prospectively observed group of RA patients with or without early hip joint destruction. The COMP levels at study inclusion, median 11 months from onset of symptoms, were significantly higher in the patients with early hip joint destruction compared to the patients in the more benign group. There was no difference in the number of disease susceptibility-related epitopes between the groups. DRB104, in contrast, was found among 8/8 patients with hip destruction, but also in 5/8 more benign cases. We conclude that in this type of RA patient, COMP serum levels are more informative predictors of aggressive disease than HLA DRB1 typing.
HLA - DRB1链第三高变区67 - 72位氨基酸特征序列的携带与类风湿性关节炎（RA）易感性相关。该表位是否也是更严重疾病的预测指标仍存在争议。软骨寡聚基质蛋白（COMP）是一种蛋白质，在先前的研究中发现其血清水平与大关节破坏性疾病相关。在本文中，我们比较了前瞻性观察的有或无早期髋关节破坏的RA患者组的DRB1分型和血清COMP水平。在研究纳入时，即症状出现后中位11个月时，早期髋关节破坏患者的COMP水平显著高于病情较轻组的患者。两组之间疾病易感性相关表位的数量没有差异。相比之下，在8/8例髋关节破坏患者中发现了DRB104，但在5/8例病情较轻的病例中也有发现。我们得出结论，在这类RA患者中，COMP血清水平比HLA DRB1*分型更能有效预测侵袭性疾病。
