The gelsolin level in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome

H. Huang, W.-Q. Song, Y. Li

Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China. liyang@hrbmu.edu.cn

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: Gelsolin (GSN) is a multifunctional protein that can regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis, inflammation and infection. GSN has been reported to be involved in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis (MS) and many other diseases. The role of GSN in primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) remains still unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the changes of GSN level in serum and whole blood cells of pSS patients and evaluate the relationship between GSN and fatigue or other clinical indicators.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The cross-sectional study included 47 pSS patients (1 male and 46 females, average age: 52.83±12.63 years) and 51 healthy controls (all females, average age: 50.61±9.86 years). The patients were collected from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China, without the age and sex differences. The levels of GSN in serum of pSS patients and the healthy controls were measured by Western blotting. The sequencing gene expression omnibus (GEO) data from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) about GSN levels in the whole blood cells of pSS patients and the healthy controls were analyzed by R language.

RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, the level of GSN was significantly decreased in the serum of pSS patients (98.89 ± 28.94 vs. 131.6 ± 37.1 µg/ml, p<0.001). The expression of GSN in the whole blood cells of pSS patients was significantly lower than that in the healthy controls (6.4 ± 0.19 vs. 6.6 ± 0.17, p<0.01). Compared to non-fatigued pSS patients, the level of GSN was down-regulated in serum (85.69 ± 27.08 vs. 111.52 ± 24.71 µg/ml, p<0.01) and whole blood cells (6.43 ± 0.18 vs. 6.58 ± 0.21, p<0.001) in fatigue pSS patients. However, there was no significant correlation between the level of GSN and EULAR Sjogrens syndrome disease activity index (ESSDAI) in pSS patients (p=0.73).

CONCLUSIONS: GSN is decreased in serum and whole blood cells of pSS patients, and it is much lower in fatigue patients than that in non-fatigue patients. The correlation between the level of GSN and ESSDAI was not significant in pSS patients.

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