Increased Serum LIGHT Levels Correlate with Disease Progression and Severity of Interstitial Pneumonia in Patients with Dermatomyositis: A Case Control Study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 10; p. e0140117
• Main Authors: Kotani, Takuya, Takeuchi, Tohru, Ishida, Takaaki, Masutani, Ryota, Isoda, Kentaro, Hata, Kenichiro, Yoshida, Shuzo, Makino, Shigeki, Hanafusa, Toshiaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 08.10.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Arthritis; Biomarkers - blood; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; CD8 antigen; Complications and side effects; Cytokines; Dermatomyositis; Dermatomyositis - blood; Dermatomyositis - mortality; Disease Progression; Female; Helper cells; Herpes viruses; Hospitals; Humans; Internal medicine; Laboratories; Light; Light levels; Lung diseases; Lung Diseases, Interstitial - blood; Lung Diseases, Interstitial - mortality; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Male; Medicine; Middle Aged; Opacity; Pathogenesis; Patients; Pneumonia; Retrospective Studies; Rheumatology; Risk factors; Studies; Survival Analysis; Tumor Necrosis Factor Ligand Superfamily Member 14 - blood; United States; United States > US; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140117

Activated CD8+ T cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of dermatomyositis (DM) with interstitial pneumonia (IP). Serum CD8+ T-cell activator, LIGHT, and Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokines were measured in DM-IP patients and compared with clinical parameters to investigate their usefulness. The correlations between the clinical findings and serum LIGHT and Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokine levels were investigated in 21 patients with DM-IP (14 with rapidly progressive IP [RPIP] and 7 with chronic IP [CIP], including 4 fatal cases of IP). The median serum LIGHT level was 119 (16-335.4) pg/ml, which was higher than that in healthy control subjects and DM patients without IP. The median serum IL-6 level was 14.7 (2.4-154.5) pg/ml (n = 13). The other cytokines were detected in only a few patients. The median serum LIGHT level in DM-RPIP patients (156 [49.6-335.4] pg/ml) was significantly higher than that in DM-CIP patients (94.3 [16-164.2] pg/ml) (P = 0.02). The serum IL-6 level did not correlate with either progression or outcome of DM-IP. ROC curve analysis determined a serum LIGHT level of ≥120 pg/ml to be the cut-off value for the rapid progression of DM-IP. Serum LIGHT levels correlated significantly with %DLco (R = 0.55, P = 0.04) and total ground-glass opacity scores (R = 0.72, P = 0.0002). The serum LIGHT level significantly decreased to 100.5 (12.4-259.3) pg/ml 4 weeks after treatment initiation (P = 0.04). The serum LIGHT level may be a promising marker of disease progression and severity in patients with DM-IP.