Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterised by chronic inflammation of the joints and is often associated with internal organs involvement. Cell adhesion molecules play an important role in the pathogenesis of endothelial-leukocyte interactions, angiogenesis and lymphocyte activation, leading to the progression of the disease. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the serum profile of soluble adhesion molecules is associated with clinical feature and extra-articular manifestation of RA.
Serum levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and E-selectin (sE-selectin) were assessed by ELISA in 29 patients with RA and 25 healthy controls. Ten out of the 29 patients had systemic lesions.
The serum concentrations of siCAM-1, sVCAM-1, sE-selectin were significantly increased in RA patients compared with controls (p<0.001 in all cases). RA patients with extra-articular involvement showed significantly higher levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 than those without organ injury (p<0.001 and p<0.01 respectively). The serum concentrations of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 correlated with CRP and ESR.
We conclude that serum levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 may be useful in the diagnosis of the systemic injury in RA patients.