Raised concentration of soluble form of vascular endothelial cadherin and IL-23 in sera of patients with Behçet’s disease

Abstract

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem vasculitis disease that can affect any organ and usually is combined with hyperactivation of neutrophils. Involvement of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-12 in BD has been shown before. However, IL-12 shares a p40 subunit with IL-23, which has additional inflammatory effects apart of IL-12. IL-23 increases neutrophils’ transmigration and therefore could contribute in BD induction or progression. Moreover, endothelial cells express vascular endothelial cadherin adhesion molecule (VE–cadherin), which plays critical roles in angiogenesis and endothelial integrity. VE–cadherin may shed into the circulation in a soluble form (sVE–cadherin), and inflammatory cytokines can increase this process. Therefore, a correlation between IL-23 concentration and amount of sVE–cadherin was proposed. We enrolled 44 healthy persons and 53 patients with BD of different disease activities and examined their serum concentrations of IL-23 and sVE–cadherin. A significant correlation was found between the concentrations of these two factors among patients only. Comparing sVE–cadherin mean concentration in patients and controls showed a significant difference, which for IL-23 was not considered significant. Results showed higher IL-23 in sera of patients with uveitis. Moreover, there was a meaningful correlation between IL-23 content and disease activity. These results could extend the biological effects of IL-23 in BD and introduce sVE–cadherin as a potential new biomarker in the course of BD pathogenesis.

Keywords::

• Behçet’s disease
• IL-23
• Soluble vascular endothelial cadherin