Clinical features and correlation research of fever in systemic lupus erythematosus patients / 中华风湿病学杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with fever and find out the related factors.MethodsData was collected by the same methods in the past ten years in fifteen hospitals in Jiangsu province and then the data wereretrospectively analyzed.The potentially possible risk factors of fever in SLE were selected and then analyzed by chi-square test,Wilcoxon rank sum test and Logistic regression analysis.ResultsAll 1762 patients were investigated.Seven hundred and twenty-nine had active fever.Age at hospitalization,initially treated patients,photosensitivity,serositis,nervous system involvement,generalized lymphadenopathy/hepatosplenomegaly,white blood cell count (WBC),haemoglobin (HB),erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),C-reaction protein (CRP),alanine aminotransferase(ALT),albumin(ALB),serum creatinine (Scr),complement C3,anti-dsDNA antibodies positive rate,anti-Sm antibodies positive rate,SLEDAI score and past therapies were factors associatedwith SLE fever.Logistic regression analysis showed that abnormal WBC count (OR=1.396,95％CI 1.114-1.711,P=0.004),CRP(OR=1.005,95％CI 1.002-1.009,P=0.002),ALT(OR=1.003,95％CI 1.001-1.005,P=0.005),Scr (OR=0.997,95％CI0.995-0.999,P=0.007),HB (OR=0.986,95％CI 0.981-0.992,P=0.000),age (OR =0.984,95％ CI 0.974-0.993,P=0.001 ) and past usage of cyclophosphamide (CTX) (OR =0.557,95％CI 0.382-0.813,P=0.002) were correlated with SLE fever.ConclusionFever is one of the most common clinical manifestations of SLE patients.Leucopenia,elevated CRP levels,liver function abnormalities,anemia,younger age are risk factors for SLE fever,while renal impairment and past usage of CTX are protective factors.

The effect of dexamethasone on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of human marrow stromal cells in vitro / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective To observe the effect of dexamethasone(Dex)on the proliferation and os- teogenic differentiation of human marrow stromal cells(MSCs)in vitro.Methods The primary human MSCs were isolated and cultured by Ficoll seperation culture in vitro.In subcultures,human MSCs were respectively treated with dexamethasone 10~(-9),10~(-8) and 10~(-7) mol/L.The proliferation of human MSCs was measured using MTF method;cytoplasmic alkaline phosphatase(ALP)activity was measured;the osteogenic marker osteopontin (OPN)mRNA were examined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).Results The op- tical density values in cultures treated with dexamethasone 10~(-8) and 10~(-7) mol/L for 8 days were significantly lower than those in the controls(P＜0.05).Treatment of cells with Dex for 12 days led to a significant increase in cytoplasmic ALP activity(P＜0.05)in a dose-dependent manner.Dex induced OPN mRNA.Conclusion Dex inhibits the proliferation of human MSCs and dexamethasone 10~(-7) mol/L leads to a strong decrease in cell number.Dex induces human MSCs differentiate to osteoblastic cells.