role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythmatosus [SLE] among some Iraqi patients

ABSTRACT

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [SLE] is a chronic progressive autoimmune disorder with a wide spectrum of clinical and immunological abnormalities, predominantly developed in women of childbearing age, oxidative stress has been postulated in many pathological conditions including atherosclerosis, inflammatory conditions and some autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [SLE]. The present study was conducted to support the idea of oxidative stress during the pathogenesis of [SLE] among some Iraqi patients, comparing it with healthy controls group matched for the same sex and age. Twenty-three Iraqi Arab patients [21 females and 2 males] with Systemic Lupus Erythmatosus [SLE] admitted to Baghdad Teaching Hospital were included in the present study, and have been compared with 13 healthy controls The patients group were diagnosed as having SLE according to the basis of the revised criteria of the American College of Rheumatology, Analysis of the parameters of oxidative stress, serum malondialdehyde [MDA] and glutathion [GSH] was performed in all patients before starting any type of drug treatment and their levels were compared with those belong to healthy controls. The results presented in this study showed elevated serum MDA concentration in the SLE patients group compared to healthy control; however, this elevation failed to reach the statistically significant [P<0.05]. Significant variation was also demonstrated in serum levels of glutathione between both patients group, in which serum GSH level was significantly lower in the diseased group compared to healthy controls [P<0.05]. Oxidative stress mechanism can be proposed as a cause and / or consequence in the pathogenesis of SLE, supporting the theory of free radical -induced tissue damage in this respect