Inflammasomes in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Abstract Background The inflammasome plays an important role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which was little systematically reported. The aim of this study was to understand whether the levels of inflammasome were related to the severity of RA disease, which might provide a stronger theoretical basis for RA treatment. Methods The mRNA expression levels of some inflammasomes and associated molecules including IL-1beta and IL-18 in peripheral blood peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 30 RA patients (n = 30) and 16 healthy controls (HC) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and the levels of plasma IL-1beta and IL-18 were also measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Moreover, clinical characteristics and laboratory results of the patients were collected and analyzed in this study. Results Compared to HC group, the relative mRNA expression levels of NLRP3, NLRC4, AIM2, caspase-1, and IL-1beta were significantly higher, but notably lower in NLRP1, NLRP2 and NLRC5 in RA group. Moreover, the plasma IL-1beta and IL-18 levels were markedly increased in RA group. Additionally, the mRNA level of AIM2 was negatively correlated with DAS28 by stepwise linear regression analysis. and ESR was positively correlated with DAS28 by multiple linear regression analysis in RA group. Conclusions These findings implied the critical role of NLRP3, NLRC4, AIM2, caspase-1 mRNA, plasma IL-1beta and IL-18 in the pathogenesis of RA patients, which provided potential targets for the diagnosis and treatment of RA.