Study on the correlation between serum levels of LRG1, sCD134, TNF-α and disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective To investigate the serum levels changes of leucine rich-α-2-glycoprotein 1(LRG1), soluble CD134(sCD134), and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA), and their correlation with disease activity.

Methods A total of 120 patients with RA were selected as RA group, and divided into the remission group(30 cases), low-moderate activity group(61 cases) and high activity group(29 cases) according to the disease activity score 28(DAS28).In addition, 65 non-RA patients at the same time were selected as the non-RA group, and 40 healthy physical examinees were selected as healthy control group.The serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA), and the clinical data between healthy control group and RA group were compared.The correlations of serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α in RA patients were analyzed by Pearson method.Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α and DAS28 score.

Results The serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α in the RA group and non-RA group were higher than those in healthy control group, and the serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α in the RA group were higher than those in non-RA group(P < 0.05).There was no statistical significance in the gender composition, age, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure between healthy control group and RA group(P>0.05).The serum levels of LRG1, sCD134, TNF-α and DAS28 score in the high activity group and low-moderate activity group were higher than those in remission group, and the serum levels of LRG1, sCD134, TNF-α and DAS28 score in the high activity group were higher than those in low-moderate activity group(P < 0.05).The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that the serum LRG1 levels were significantly positively correlated with sCD134 and TNF-α levels, and the serum sCD134 levels were significantly positively correlated with TNF-α levels in RA patients(r=0.495, 0.487, 0.746, P < 0.01).The results of Spearman correlation analysis showed that the serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α were positively correlated with DAS28 score(disease activity) in RA patients(r=0.528, 0.807, 0.813, P < 0.01).

Conclusions The serum levels of LRG1, sCD134 and TNF-α in RA patients are closely related to the disease activity.Detecting the serum LRG1, sCD134, TNF-α levels of patients has certain reference value for evaluating the degree of disease activity and selecting treatment plan.