Plasma TNF-α Elevation in Biologic Naive Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Belonging to a Population with New Mutations in TLR4 and CYP51A1 genes without Association with Disease-Related Antibodies Levels.

In a system biology-based study, we previously reported that IL-6 and IL6R -specific m-RNA levels were elevated in leukocytes of patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, the association of toll-like receptor4 (TLR4) rs 141534085 and cytochrome P450 family 51 subfamily A member 1(CYP51A1) rs6 with tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF- α), rheumatoid factor (RF)- and Anti- cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody -positivity was investigated in almost the same subjects. Forty-six patients and 48 normal subjects were recruited in this study.

Evaluation of immunological parameters in diabetic patients: are these patients immunodeficient?

It has been widely thought that diabetic patients are prone to infections due to hyperglycemia induced immunodeficiency; the present study was designed to examine this opinion. In diabetic patients and normal control groups T-cell reactivity to hsp-60 molecule, tetanus toxoid recall antigen (TT) and phytohemagglutinin-A (PHA) mitogen were evaluated The number of circulating IFN-γ, IL-10 and IL-13 cytokine producing cells stimulated with above antigens or mitogen as well as the serum levels of Th1/Th2 type cytokines were determined. Total serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM), C3, C4 and CH50 were also measured.