| Abstract: |
To compare serum levels of resistin in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with controls and to asses resistin in correlation with disease activity, markers of inflammation and serum lipids in these patients.Methods: We analyzed serum samples of 20 RA patients and 20 SLE patients for ESR, CRP, TNF-alpha, albumin, HDL, Tg, cholesterol and resistin. Disease activity in RA and SLE patients was assessed by the DAS28 and SLEDAI score respectively. The control group included 20 osteoarthritis (OA) patients and 20 apparently normal volunteers who were age and sex matched with the patients.Results: In patients with RA & SLE, serum resistin levels were significantly higher than controls ( P < 0.01). Serum resistin levels in patients with RA correlated with ESR, CRP, TNF-alpha, DAS28, HDL & Tg. In SLE patients, in addition to markers of inflammation and serum lipids, current dose of glucocorticosteroid and serum creatinine also correlated positively to resistin. In a multiple regression analysis, TNF-alpha, HDL and Tg remained significantly associated with resistin ( P < 0.01).Conclusion: Although resistin values were not markedly elevated, there was a highly significant difference between resistin levels in RA & SLE patients compared to controls. Resistin was clearly associated with general inflammation, renal disease, glucocorticosteroid dose, and serum lipids. We hypothesize that resistin has proinflammatory and disease-promoting properties in RA and SLE. Moreover, resistin plays a role in dyslipidemia in these patients.Abbreviations: RA rheumatoid arthritis, SLE systemic lupus erythematosis, CRP C-reactive protein, DAS28 disease activity score, SLEDAI systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index, ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate, TNF-alpha tumor necrosis factor alpha, HDL high density lipoproteins, Tg triglycerides..
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