ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between negative acute phase proteins and chronic urticaria (CU).Methods Fifty patients with CU were enrolled into this study,and divided into three grades,i.e.,mild (grade 1),moderate (grade 2) and severe (grade 3) according to symptoms.Twenty-eight health checkup examinees served as the control group.Immunoturbidimetry was performed to determine serum levels of prealbumin (PA) and transferrin (TRF).Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was conducted to measure serum levels of insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).Statistical analysis was carried out to assess differences in these indices between these two groups,the relationship among these indices and between these indices and disease severity.Results Compared with the control group,the patients with CU showed reduced serum levels of PA ((229.99 ± 54.16) vs.(272.06 ± 36.42) mg/L,t =3.667,P ＜ 0.05) and IGF-1 ((177.23 ± 46.48) vs.(239.88 ± 45.16) μg/L,t =5.748,P＜ 0.05),but higher serum levels of TNF-α ((25.39 ± 11.01) vs.(14.13 ± 6.12) ng/L,t =4.989,P＜ 0.05),and similar serum levels of TRF ((2.48 ± 0.49) vs.(2.48 ± 0.25) g/L,P＞ 0.05).The serum level of PA showed a significant negative correlation with that of TNF-α (r =-0.312,P ＜ 0.05),as well as with disease severity (r =-0.635,P ＜ 0.01),whereas the serum level of TNF-α showed a significant positive correlation with disease severity (r =0.409,P ＜ 0.01),and no statistical correlation was found between the remaining indices (all P ＞ 0.05) in the patients with CU.Conclusions Serum levels of some negative acute phase proteins decrease and negatively correlate with disease severity in patients with CU.Acute phase response may be involved in the occurrence of CU.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the relationship of acute-phase response and coagulation/fibrinolysis with chronic urticaria (CU).Methods Fifty-three patients with CU and twenty-five healthy human controls were enrolled in this study.Venous blood samples were collected from all of these subjects.Then,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was carried out to measure the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and amyloid protein A (AA),and immunoturbidimetry to determine the levels of serum high sensitive C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP) and plasma D-dimer.The patients with CU were classified into three groups according to the severity of clinical symptoms.The levels of serum IL-6 and plasma D-dimer were given in mean ± standard deviation,and those of serum AA and Hs-CRP in mean (25th percentile,75th percentile).Rank sum test and t test were performed to compare these parameters between the patients and controls,and Spearman rank correlation analysis was conducted to study the relationship among these parameters as well as between these parameters and symptom severity in these patients.Results The levels of serum IL-6,serum AA and plasma D-dimer were (10.70 ± 4.94) ng/L,4.92 (8.22,12.51) μg/L,and (222.32 ± 163.69) μg/L respectively in the patients with CU,significantly higher than those in the healthy controls ((7.49 ± 3.41) ng/L,2.11 (1.21,2.83) μg/L,(104.72 ± 43.12) μg/L,respectively,all P＜ 0.05),while no significant differences were observed between the patients and controls in the level of serum HsCRP (0.30 (0.10,1.40) mg/L vs.0.30 (0.10,0.55) mg/L,P ＞ 0.05).In patients with CU,the levels of serum IL-6 were unrelated to those of serum Hs-CRP,serum AA,or plasma D-dimer (all P ＞ 0.05),whereas a positive correlation was observed between the levels of serum Hs-CRP and AA (r =0.67,P ＜ 0.01),serum Hs-CRP and plasma D-dimer (r =0.49,P ＜ 0.01),serum AA and plasma D-dimer (r =0.38,P ＜ 0.01).Further more,the levels of serum Hs-CRP,AA and plasma D-dimer were significantly correlated with symptom severity in patients with CU (r =0.63,0.62,0.47,respectively,all P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Acute-phase response coexists with the activation of coagulation system in patients with CU,suggesting a potential association between acute-phase response and coagulation system activation.