Osteoprotegerin (OPG) levels, total soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor-Kappa B ligand (total sRANKL) , and RANKL/OPG ratio in patients with rheumatoid arteritis

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of most important collagen vascular diseases. It has an unknown origin. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate circulating levels of osteoprotegerin (OPG), total soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor-Kappa B ligand (total sRANKL), and OPG/RANKL ratio in patients with RA. Methods: Forty-five females with RA, who fulfilled the American college of rheumatology (ACR) criteria for RA were included in this cross-sectional study. The overall disease activity was evaluated by the disease activity score based on 28 joint counts (DAS-28). The OPG and sRANKL were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The levels of high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were measured by ELISA. We used Pearson's correlation for our comparisons. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the levels of hsCRP, OPG, sRANKL and RANKL/OPG ratio in terms of DAS; 28 grades in our patients.No significant correlation was found between the serum levels of OPG and DAS-28 (P = 0.525), duration of the disease (P = 0.884), Z score of the femur (P = 0.546) and Z score of the spine (P = 0.492), T score of the femur (P = 0.137) and T score of the spine (P = 0.821) in the patient group. No significant correlations were found between sRANKL levels with DAS-28 (0.919), Z score of the femur (P = 0.971), Z score of the spine (P = 0.832) and T score of the femur (P = 0170) in the studied groups. Conclusions: Our study showed that there was no significant correlation between hsCRP, OPG, sRANKL and RANKL/OPG ratio in DAS-28 grading of our patients. For this reason they will not be used for evaluating disease activity. However, there was a significant difference between case and control groups except for sRANKL (pg/mL).

The Association of Serum RANKL Levels with disease activity and Hematological Parameters in Syrian Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…This could be due to the small number of RA patients (26 patients) and the healthy group (N=10) in his study 19 . Sousan et al study in Iran 2017 did not find a statistically significant difference (P=0,49) in serum RANKL levels between patients and healthy controls because all of their patients and controls were only women 37 . Our result also contrasted with the Carmen study et al 2016 in Spain, which showed that serum RANKL values were below the detection limit in 85% of studied RA patients (N=93).…”

“…These studies and ours confirm that increased RANKL level may reflect RA activity and may be added with DAS28 as an assistant biomarker to assess disease activity . On the other hand, Kolahi et al study in Iran 201742 and Boman et al study in Sweden 2017 did not observe a correlation between serum RANKL levels and DAS28 in patients with RA 19 . According to the correcation with CRP, a study by Bruno et al study 2021 in Italy 44 and Burska et al 2021 study in the United States did not find a significant association between serum RANKL and CRP 45 .…”