Changes of IL-18 and sFas/sFasL in Sera From Patients with SLE / 中国医师杂志

Objective To investigate the relationship between IL-18 and apoptosis in patients with SLE by using testing the changes of IL-18 and soluble Fas/soluble Fas ligand in sera from the patients.Methods 58 patients with SLE were divided into three groups according to their SLEDAI score;sera from 58 patients,and 30 normal controls were tested for IL-18 and sFas/sFasL using ELISA assay.Results The level of IL-18 and sFas in sera from SLE patients was significantly higher than that of normal controls(P0 05).Besides,the increased level of IL-18 was correlated well with the increased level of sFas (?=0 496,P0 5).Conclusion The increased level of IL-18 may result in the elevation of serum sFas/sFasL in patients with SLE.They may play important roles in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Soluble Fas and soluble Fas ligand in autoimmune diseases / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective To assess the level of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in the sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),rheumatoid arthritis (RA),multiple sclerosis (MS)and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).Method The level of sFas and sFasL was determined by a sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Anti ssDNA (single stranded DNA) was detected by indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Results The level of sFas in patients with SLE,RA,IDDM and MS was significantly higher than that in healthy individuals.It was interesting that among these autoimmune diseases,the level of sFas in the sera of patients with SLE was dramatically higher than that of the other diseases.The high level of sFasL accompanied by sFas was found in the sera of SLE and RA patients.In the sera of patients with SLE,the anti ssDNA antibody always accompanied by high concentration of sFas and,by contrast,no anti ssDNA antibody was found in all the patients in whose sera no sFas was found.In patients with IDDM,the sFasL level of the serum was significantly lower than that of the serum of healthy donors.Conclusion Serum sFas level of patients with SLE,RA,MS and IDDM is higher than that of healthy individuals.These results indicate that the sFas level can be used as a marker of disease progress and relaxing after treatment with the medicine.It is also demonstrated that there is relationship between the level of anti ssDNA antibody and sFas.The level and significance of serum sFas and sFasL in these autoimmune disease patients are under investigation.