Serum cytokine concentrations before and after starting of infliximab therapy

Abstract

Purpose : Whereas the correlations between serum cytokine concentrations and activities of ocular Behçet’s disease had been repeatedly investigated, those of the patients during infliximab therapy have not yet been clarified. We examined serum cytokine concentrations before and after the induction of infliximab therapy for ocular Behçet’s disease.

Methods : Fifteen ocular Behçet’s disease patients (12 men : 3 women, 5 complete type : 10 incomplete type, 38.3 ± 2.2 years old), who visited the outpatient clinics of University of Tokyo Hospital and infliximab was induced, and sixteen healthy persons (12 men : 4 women, 45.0 ± 3.5 years old) were enrolled. The serums of ocular Behçet’s disease patients within one year before and after the induction of infliximab therapy as well as healthy persons were collected. Serum concentrations of IL-4, IL-23, IL-12p70, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-21, IL-6, IL-17A, IL-10, and IL-27 were examined by Sandwich ELISA method.

Results : Before the induction of infliximab therapy for ocular Behçet’s disease, the serum concentrations of IL-23, TNF-α, IL-21, IL-6, IL-17A, and IL-27 were higher than those of healthy persons (p<0.05). After the induction, the serum concentrations of IL-23, IL-12p70, TNF-α, IL-21, IL-6, IL-17, and IL-27 were higher than those of healthy persons (p<0.05). The serum concentration of IL-17 after the induction was higher than that of before the induction (p<0.01). For the five patients who had ocular attack after the induction, the serum concentration of IL-21 was higher at the phase of ocular attack than those without ocular attack (p<0.05).

Conclusions : There is a probability that infliximab therapy for ocular Behçet’s disease induces the elevation of serum concentration of IL-17. The serum concentration of IL-21 may be increased at the phase of ocular attacks after starting infliximab.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.