Association of rheumatoid arthritis with ergothioneine levels in red blood cells: a case control study.
OBJECTIVE
The dietary thiol compound and erythrocyte ingredient ergothioneine (ET) is the preferential physiological substrate of the organic cation transporter OCTN1, found to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in genetic studies, but the biological roles of ET and OCTN1 are unclear. We investigated the association between ET concentrations in peripheral blood erythrocytes and the occurrence of RA.


METHODS
Erythrocyte ET concentrations in patients with mildly active RA (n = 73) were compared to ET levels in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD; n = 62) and osteoarthritis (OA; n = 148), serving as non-RA chronic inflammatory disease controls. Correlation of ET levels in erythrocytes with levels of ET and OCTN1 mRNA in CD14+ monocytes was determined in 10 healthy subjects.


RESULTS
Erythrocyte ET levels were significantly higher in patients with RA, with a median (interquartile range) of 12.6 micromole/l of erythrocytes (IQR 8.1-18.3), compared to 7.7 (IQR 5.0-12.0; p < 0.001) in CHD and 7.8 (IQR 4.8-12.8; p < 0.001) in OA. The prevalence of RA compared to non-RA controls increased with increasing blood ET concentrations, with an odds ratio of 0.23 (95% CI 0.13-0.41; p < 0.001) in the lowest quartile of RA erythrocyte ET levels to 3.11 (95% CI 1.54-6.29; p = 0.002) in the highest quartile. The group differences in ET values were maintained after adjustment for disease-related anthropometric and clinical variables (age, sex, body mass index, smoking, duration of disease, hemoglobin, C-reactive protein, and medication) and were also independent of erythrocyte glutathione levels and of polymorphisms of the OCTN1 gene. ET levels in erythrocytes were linearly correlated with ET concentrations (R2 = 0.936, p < 0.001) and OCTN1 mRNA levels (R2 = 0.946, p < 0.001) in CD14+ cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Mildly active cases of RA are associated with an unexplained high level of ET in red blood cells.
Taubert
Dirk
D
Department of Pharmacology, University Hospital of Cologne, D-50931 Cologne, Germany. dirk.taubert@medizin.uni-koeln.de
Lazar
Andreas
A
Grimberg
Gundula
G
Jung
Norma
N
Rubbert
Andrea
A
Delank
Karl-Stefan
KS
Perniok
Andreas
A
Erdmann
Erland
E
Schömig
Edgar
E
D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004880:Ergothioneine / Q000097:blood*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D027701:Organic Cation Transport Proteins / Q000097:blood; D027981:Symporters
D027701:Organic Cation Transport Proteins; C109807:SLC22A4 protein, human; D027981:Symporters; D004880:Ergothioneine