PMID: 18709691Aug 19, 2008Paper

Th1 and Th2 chemokine serum levels in systemic sclerosis in the presence or absence of autoimmune thyroiditis

The Journal of Rheumatology
Alessandro AntonelliEle Ferrannini

Abstract

We evaluated contemporarily serum alpha and beta chemokines in patients with newly diagnosed systemic sclerosis (SSc) in the presence or absence of autoimmune thyroiditis (AT). Serum levels of CXCL10 and CCL2 chemokines, prototypes of the 2 major subclasses (Th1 and Th2), were measured in patients with newly diagnosed SSc with (n = 40; SSc-II) or without (n = 50; SSc-I) AT, in comparison with 50 normal controls (control-I) and 40 AT controls without SSc (control-II) (sex- and age-matched). Serum CXCL10 levels were significantly higher in control-II, SSc-I, and SSc-II than in control-I (150 +/- 131, 196 +/- 137, 254 +/- 98, 83 +/- 42 pg/ml, respectively; p < 0.001 for all). SSc-I had serum CXCL10 levels significantly higher than control-II (p = 0.03), and significantly lower than SSc-II (p = 0.04). SSc-II had serum CXCL10 levels significantly higher than control-II (p = 0.002). Serum CCL2 levels were significantly higher in SSc-I and SSc-II than in control-I (378 +/- 192, 403 +/- 131, 316 +/- 113 pg/ml, respectively; p = 0.03 and p < 0.01, respectively). SSc-II had serum CCL2 levels significantly higher than control-II (327 +/- 123 pg/ml; p = 0.04). Our study demonstrates high serum levels of both CXCL10 (Th1) and CCL2 (Th2) che...Continue Reading

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