Increased serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

In this study we investigated the serum levels of a released soluble form of the interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) in 42 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and in 12 cases of systemic lupus erythematosus. Data were evaluated in relationship to the clinical phase and compared with those observed in normal controls (N = 56) and in osteoarthritis (N = 7). Increased levels were observed in both rheumatoid arthritis (mean +/- SE, 604 +/- 49 U/ml) and systemic lupus erythematosus (1438 +/- 481 U/ml). These values were significantly higher than in control (256 +/- 15 U/ml; P less than 0.001) and in osteoarthritis (298 +/- 33 U/ml; P less than 0.001) groups. In addition, the highest values were associated with the active phases of both rheumatoid arthritis (active vs inactive, 771 +/- 78 vs 451 +/- 39 U/ml; P less than 0.001) and systemic lupus erythematosus (active vs inactive, 2108 +/- 489 vs 499 +/- 75 U/ml; P less than 0.001). Our findings suggest that the detection of sIL-2R in rheumatoid arthritis and in systemic lupus erythematosus may represent a good marker of disease activity, which indirectly indicates the ongoing activation and/or proliferation of immunoreactive cells which are involved in the pathogenetic events of these autoimmune conditions.

Elevated interleukin-2 receptor level in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and the changes following anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy

“…Although the exact immunological role of sIL-2R is not well-established, it may serve as a marker of disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis [7], haematological malignancies [8] and pulmonary disorders, such as asthma [9], lung cancer [10] and tuberculosis (TB) [11]. In patients with old inactive TB, the serum sIL-2R levels were not significantly different from those of normal control subjects.…”

Soluble interleukin-2 receptor, interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 in sera and supernatants from patients with progressive systemic sclerosis

“…Increased serum sIL-2R levels have been reported in several autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (Semenzato e;a/,, 1988;Symons e/a/,, 1988, Manoussakise^a/,, 1989), Sjogren's syndrome (Manoussakis et al, 1989), active and inactive SLE (Semenzato et al, 1988;Manoussakis et al, 1989), as well as murine lupus (Balderas et al, 1987), Since activated T lymphocytes (Uchiyama, Broder & Waldmann, 1981), B cells (Waldmann et al, 1984) and monocytes/macrophages (Hermann et al, 1985) express IL-2R, the most important cell source of elevated circulating sIL-2R levels in PSS patients remains to be determined. However, the report that at least in vitro, the amount of released sIL-2R by stimulated B lymphocytes and monocytes is less than that produced by activated T lymphocytes (Nelson et al, 1986) seems to indicate that the in vivo measurement of sIL-2R provides an accurate index of T cell activation only.…”

Serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor in association with oxidative stress index in patients with different types of HPV

“…Previous studies have suggested that sIL-2R levels offer a rapid, reliable and noninvasive measure of disease activity, response to therapy and, in some cases, prognosis in a broad spectrum of conditions associated with T-or B-cell immune activation [11]. Similarly, sIL-2R levels have been evaluated in gynecologic conditions such as endometriosis, cervical cancer in association with HPV and in other genital cancers [31][32][33].…”

“…Levels of sIL-2R can be measured easily because a part of it is proteolytically cleaved and is found in serum [10]. Previous studies have demonstrated elevated serum levels of sIL-2R in various autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or Kawasaki disease, among transplant recipients who subsequently reject their graft, and in individuals with viral infections, including HIV and hepatitis, or hematological and lung tumors, as well as precancer and cancer of the uterine cervix [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”