Adult Still's disease reflects a Th2 rather than a Th1 cytokine profile.
Adult Still's disease (ASD) is a chronic multisystemic disease. Extraordinarily high serum levels of IL-18 in ASD patients have been described, whereas the mechanism remains to be clarified. This study aimed to evaluate proinflammatory cytokines and to consider their pathological roles. In patients with rheumatic diseases (n = 151), blood samples were taken at the active phase and the serum levels of IL-18 and other proinflammatory cytokines were measured by ELISA. The extra-high levels of IL-18 were confirmed selectively in ASD patients (n = 10). In the active phase of ASD patients, the levels of IL-6 were elevated accordingly, but IL-1beta and TNF-alpha were undetectable. As to Th1-Th2 cytokines, the levels of IL-4 and IL-13, but not INF-gamma, IL-12, or IL-2, were elevated in all ASD patients examined. Moreover, the serum levels of IL-18 showed a good correlation with those of IL-4, suggesting that ASD reflects a Th2 rather than a Th1 cytokine profile.
Saiki
Osamu
O
Department of Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture College of Nursing, Habikino, Osaka 583-8555, Japan. osaiki@osaka-hsu.ac.jp
Uda
Hiroshi
H
Nishimoto
Norihiko
N
Miwa
Takashi
T
Mima
Toru
T
Ogawara
Tomoharu
T
Azuma
Naoto
N
Katada
Yoshinori
Y
Sawaki
Junko
J
Tsutsui
Hiroko
H
Matsui
Kiyoshi
K
Maeda
Akira
A
Nakanishi
Kenji
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016706:Still's Disease, Adult-Onset / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
D018793:Interleukin-13; D020382:Interleukin-18; D015847:Interleukin-4; D002097:C-Reactive Protein