The aim of our study was to evaluate serum VEcadherine (VE-CAD) in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and to investigate the potential relations between VE-CAD and the demographic, clinical, biological and disease activity scores.
Materials and method: prospective observational study on 64 consecutive RA patients, assessed according to a standard protocol including demographics, disease (clinical, inflammatory, immunological) characteristics, serum VE-CAD (ELISA) and disease activity score (DAS28).
Results: a significant correlation was noticed between VE-CAD serum levels and the age of male RA patients; the serum levels of VE-CAD tend to increase in the second and third stage of RA and to decrease in the fourth stage; although the maximum VE-CAD serum levels were significantly lower in RA patients undergoing anti-TNF therapy, no conclusion that anti-TNF therapy might affect in any way the VE-CAD serum levels could be attained.
Conclusions: VE-CAD could represent a new biomarker of disease activity, particularly in the subset of RA patients with normal CRP level.
- rheumatoid arthritis
- VE-cadherin