Evaluation of serum concentrations of chemotactic cytokines (chemokines) in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica at disease diagnosis and during a six-month period of corticosteroid treatment.
Sera were obtained from patients at the time of PMR diagnosis and subsequently after one week, two weeks, one month, three months and six months. At each time point a clinical and laboratory evaluation was performed. Serum concentrations of IL-8, GRO alpha, RANTES, MCP-1, and MIP1 alpha were evaluated by commercial ELISA kits.
Only RANTES serum levels were significantly higher in PMR patients than in controls. No correlation was found between RANTES concentrations and laboratory and clinical features. Chemokine levels reached their lowest level after one month of steroid treatment and remained in the normal range thereafter.
The production of RANTES is enhanced in untreated PMR patients; corticosteroid treatment results in a normalization of chemokine levels.