Increased levels of the soluble oncostatin M receptor (sOSMR) and glycoprotein 130 (sgp130) in systemic sclerosis patients and associations with clinical parameters.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the serum levels of soluble oncostatin M (OSM), OSM receptor (sOSMR) and glycoprotein130 (sgp130) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and the possible associations and correlations with clinical parameters. METHODS: Serum levels of OSM, sOSMR and sgp130 were evaluated by ELISA in eighty-four SSc patients and eighty-four healthy volunteers. RESULTS: SSc patients had significantly elevated levels of sOSMR and sgp130 when compared with healthy individuals (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.025, respectively). Diffuse cutaneous SSc and limited cutaneous SSc patients also presented higher levels of sOSMR when compared with healthy individuals (p = 0.003 and p = 0.0001, respectively). Patients with digital ulcers presented higher levels of sOSMR when compared to those without ulcers (p = 0.034). However, sOSMR levels were lower in patients with esophageal dysfunction than patients without this involvement (p = 0.038). OSM levels were undetectable in serum from SSc patients and healthy volunteers. CONCLUSION: Serum levels of sOSMR and sgp130 are elevated in patients with systemic sclerosis. In addition, associations were observed with important clinical manifestations, suggesting that sOSMR is a candidate biomarker of this disease. More studies are needed to clarify the functions of IL-6 family cytokines in systemic sclerosis.

Oncostatin M receptor ß and cysteine/histidine-rich 1 are biomarkers of the response to erythropoietin in hemodialysis patients.

Biomarkers that evaluate the response to erythropoietic-stimulating agents largely measure inflammation and iron availability. While these are important factors in modifying an individual's response to these agents, they do not address all aspects of a poor response. To clarify this, we isolated peptides in the serum of good and poor responders to erythropoietin in order to identify biomarkers of stimulating agent response. Ninety-one candidate biomarker targets were identified and characterized using mass spectrometry, of which tandem mass spectroscopy provided partial amino-acid sequence information of 17 different peptides for 16 peptide masses whose abundance significantly differed between poor and good responders. The analysis concluded that three peptides associated with a poor response were derived from oncostatin M receptor ß (OSMRß). The 13 serum peptides associated with a good response were derived from fibrinogen α and ß, coagulation factor XIII, complement C3, and cysteine/histidine rich 1(CYHR1). Poor response was most strongly associated with the OSMRß fragment with the largest molecular weight, while a good response was most strongly associated with CYHR1. Immunoblots found the abundance of intact OSMRß and CYHR1 significantly differed between good and poor responders. Thus, two measurable biomarkers of the response to erythropoietic-stimulating agents are present in the serum of treated patients.