Soluble HLA-I in rheumatic diseases

Soluble HLA-G in Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…Correlations between soluble HLA-I and certain parameters of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus [17,18] and in RA [19,20] were previously reported. A recent report showed higher serum soluble HLA-I levels in RA patients than in healthy subjects but, similar to our observations, no correlation was found with signs of inflammatory activity [21].…”

Increased Level of Soluble HLA Class I Antigens in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Correlation with Anti-DNA Antibodies and Leukopenia

“…An increased serum concentration of sHLA-I in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a multisystemic autoimmune disease which primarily affects middle-aged women, has also been previously reported [15][16] and sHLA-I has been suggested to be a useful marker of disease activity in SLE [17]. It has been shown that in patients suffering from autoimmune diseases other than SLE, such as rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis/dermatomyositis or systemic sclerosis no significant elevation of sHLA-I could be demonstrated [18]. Furthermore, mice lacking MHC class I molecules have been shown to be resistant to experimental SLE induced by injection of a human anti-DNA antibody [19].…”

Serum-derived MHC class II molecules: Potent regulators of the cellular and humoral immune response

“…During the 1970s and 1980s T suppressors were suggested to exert their effect via suppressor factors bearing class II MHC determinants (Athanassakis and Vassiliadis 2002). Changes within the physiological concentrations of sMHC molecules have been recorded in numerous pathological conditions, such as viral encephalitis (Aultman et al 1999), rheumatoid arthritis (Verbruggen et al 2000(Verbruggen et al , 2002Wolf et al 1998), pathologic pregnancies (Pfeiffer et al 2000;Steinborn et al 2003), asthma (Rizzo et al 2004) and AIDS (Aultman et al 1999). These results imply that soluble MHC molecules have a special role in the pathology of these diseases, but it is not clarified whether they contribute to the pathology or whether they constitute by-products of the pathological condition.…”