title: Serum level of eight cytokines in Han Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus using multiplex fluorescent microsphere method.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the role of 8 cytokines and their correlation with clinical characteristics in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Han Chinese population by detecting their serum levels using the multiplex fluorescent microsphere method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum was separated from 79 patients with SLE and 40 healthy controls. The serum cytokine detection was conducted according to the instruction of MILLIPLEX MAP human cytokine detection kit on the Luminex liquid phase array platform with 0.01 pg/ml detectable level. The 8 cytokines were interferon α2 (IFN-α2), IFN-γ, interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-10, IFN-γ-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and IL-17. Variable data were in skewed distribution and were expressed with median (P25, P75). Mann-Whitney analysis was used in statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the baseline level without any stimulus, the level of IP-10 expression was the highest among the 8 cytokines and the second highest was IL-8. The level of IL-17 was too low to be detected. The level of 7 cytokines was higher in SLE patients than in healthy controls (p < 0.01). The level of dsDNA antibody, C3, CRP, ESR and anti-nucleosome antibody was correlated with IL-10. Proteinuria was not correlated with any cytokine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Eight cytokines were measured in our study, while not all of them were detected. The most important finding was the usefulness of IL-10 as a disease activity biomarker for Han Chinese patient with SLE. None of cytokines reflected kidney injury.
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China ; Zhihua Yin and Jinxian Huang contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Zhihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China ; Rheumatology Department, Hong Kong University-Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, PR China ; Zhihua Yin and Jinxian Huang contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Jinxian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Weizhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiuxia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Chunrong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Rheumatology Department, The Affiliated Futian Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Rheumatology Institute of Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhizhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ye
keywords: Han Chinese; cytokine; systemic lupus erythematosus