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Clinical Significance of Serum Hyaluronan Levels in Systemic Sclerosis: Association with Disease Severity
AYUMI YOSHIZAKI, YOHEI IWATA, KAZUHIRO KOMURA, TOSHIHIDE HARA, FUMIHIDE OGAWA, EIJI MUROI, MOTOI TAKENAKA, KAZUHIRO SHIMIZU, MINORU HASEGAWA, MANABU FUJIMOTO, and SHINICHI SATO
ABSTRACT. Methods. Hyaluronan levels in serum samples from patients with SSc (n = 66) and hyaluronan expression in skin were assessed. Results. Serum hyaluronan levels in SSc patients were higher than those in healthy controls. SSc patients with elevated hyaluronan levels had more frequent involvement of several clinical manifestations and immunological abnormalities compared to those with normal levels. Thus, hyaluronan levels correlated with disease severity. Hyaluronan expression in the sclerotic skin from SSc patients was more intense, relative to expression in normal skin. Conclusion. These results suggest that elevated serum hyaluronan levels are associated with disease severity and immunological abnormalities in patients with SSc. (First Release Aug 1 2008; J Rheumatol 2008;35:1825-9) Key Indexing Terms:
SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS From the Department of Dermatology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki; and Department of Dermatology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Japan. A. Yoshizaki, MD; Y. Iwata, MD; K. Komura, MD, PhD; T. Hara, MD; F. Ogawa, MD, PhD; E. Muroi, MD, PhD; M. Takenaka, MD, PhD; K. Shimizu, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; M. Hasegawa, MD, PhD; M. Fujimoto, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science; S. Sato, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Address reprint requests to Dr. S. Sato, Department of Dermatology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8501, Japan. E-mail: s-sato@nagasaki-u.ac.jp Accepted for publication March 24, 2008. |
