The significance of helical peptides in the assessment of bone metabolism in active rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Bone resorption markers reflect the bone loss and progression of joint destruction in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this work was to study how the levels of the helical peptide (HP), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in RA patients are related to different disease activity. This study took place in the Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology of the Military Medical Academy, and included 62 RA patients. The Disease Activity Score (DAS) was calculated by substituting the numerical value of parameters in the DAS formula. HP, IL-1β, and TNF-α were measured by commercial ELISA assays. We found that the levels of both cytokines and HP were significantly higher compared to normal values. In addition, DAS correlated with concentrations of TNF-α, TL-1β and HP. We also observed a positive correlation between HP values and values of TNF-α as well as IL-1β. There were statistically significant increases of HP and IL-1β levels in the group of patients with high disease activity compared to the patients with moderate disease activity. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the level of HP correlates with DAS and reflects current bone resorption in active RA.