Correlations between IL-2 enhancing activity and clinical parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
In a previous paper (Tomura, K. et al. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1989, 159, 171-183), we discovered IL-2 enhancing factor(s) designated B cell derived-growth enhancing factor-2 (BGEF-2), which enhanced IL-2 dependent cell proliferation, and reported that BGEF-2 was produced by B cells of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) only when they were in the active stage of the disease. In this paper, we studied relationship between each IL-2 enhancing activity from B cell supernatant of the patients with these diseases and clinical parameters. IL-2 enhancing activities did not correlate with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), but correlated with plasma concentrations of gamma-globulin from the patients with RA and SLE in the active stages. IL-2 enhancing activities correlated with hypocomplementemia and leukocytopenia in the patients with SLE, and also correlated with RAHA titer in the patients with RA. Moreover, on several patients with RA or SLE in the active stages, diminution of IL-2 enhancing activity was found when they were in the remission stage after treatments. These findings suggested that IL-2 enhancing activity (i.e., BGEF-2 activity) correlated with activity of these diseases and supported the hypothesis that BGEF-2 played an important role in the polyclonal B cell activation and autoantibody production in patients with these diseases.
Tomura
K
K
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Kang
H
H
Mitamura
K
K
Takei
M
M
Yamagami
K
K
Karasaki
M
M
Nishinarita
S
S
Hayama
T
T
Sawada
S
S
Horie
T
T
D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006133:Growth Substances / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000502:physiology*; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005719:gamma-Globulins / Q000032:analysis
D006133:Growth Substances; D007376:Interleukin-2; D005719:gamma-Globulins; D002097:C-Reactive Protein