Meyer, Pieter Willem AdriaanHodkinson, BridgetAlly, Mahmood Moosa Tar MahomedMusenge, EustasiusWadee, Ahmed A.Fickl, HeidiTikly, MohammedAnderson, Ronald2012-02-092012-02-092010Meyer, PWA, Hodkinson, B, Ally, M, Musenge, E, Wadee, AA, Fickl, H, Tikly, M & Anderson, R 2010, 'Circulating cytokine profiles and their relationships with autoantibodies, acute phase reactants, and disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis', Mediators of Inflammation, vol. 2010, Article ID. 158514, pp. 1-10.0962-9351 (print)1466-1861 (online)10.1155/2010/158514http://hdl.handle.net/2263/18062Our objective was to analyse the relationship between circulating cytokines, autoantibodies, acute phase reactants, and disease activity in DMARDs-na¨ıve rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (n = 140). All cytokines were significantly higher in the RA cohort than in healthy controls. Moderate-to-strong positive intercorrelations were observed between Th1/Th2/macrophage/fibroblastderived cytokines. RF correlated significantly with IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IFN-γ, and TNF (P < .0001), and aCCP and aMCV with IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 (P < .0002), while IL-6 correlated best with the acute phase reactants, CRP, and SAA (P < .0001). In patients with a DAS28 score of ≥5.1, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-1Ra, TNF, GM-CSF, and VEGF were significantly correlated (P < .04–.001) with high disease activity (HDA). Circulating cytokines in RA reflect a multifaceted increase in immune reactivity encompassing Th1 and Th2 cells, monocytes/macrophages, and synovial fibroblasts, underscored by strong correlations between these cytokines, as well as their relationships with RF, aCCP, and aMCV, with some cytokines showing promise as biomarkers of HDA.en© 2010 Pieter W. A. Meyer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Circulating cytokinesAutoantibodiesAcute phase reactantsDisease activityRheumatoid arthritis (RA) patientsCytokinesRheumatoid arthritis -- ResearchArticle