Circulating sTWEAK and its scavenger receptor sCD163 concentrations in patients with Behçet’s disease

INTRODUCTION: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic multisystemic inflammatory disorder and is associated with many inflammatory processes. The present study aimed to examine the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokine soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) and its scavenger receptor soluble cluster of differentiation 163 (sCD163) simultaneously in patients with BD by considering their relationships with disease activity.
METHODS: The study group included 53 patients with BD (29 females and 24 males) and 30 healthy individuals. Patients with a lesion or active organ involvement were defined as active (n=39) and those without were identified as inactive (n=14). Serum sTWEAK and sCD163 concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
RESULTS: Serum sTWEAK and sCD163 levels were significantly increased in patients with BD compared with the healthy group (p=0.016 and p=0.003, respectively). Concentrations of these two molecules were also higher in active and inactive BD than the healthy individuals (p=0.043 for sTWEAK and p=0.010 for sCD163). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that serum sCD163 and sTWEAK levels had a discriminating ability between patients with BD and healthy controls with area under the curve values of 0.706 and 0.661, respectively.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: It was concluded that circulating sTWEAK and its scavenger receptor sCD163 levels were increased in BD, significantly predicted the disease, and might be significant molecules to assess inflammation.