Serum Levels of Il-18 in Iranian Females with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

IL-18 is a member of the IL-1 family of cytokines but due to its unique inflammatory and immunoregulatory properties it is suggested that it plays important roles in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases like as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: The current study was sought to evaluate serum levels of IL-18 in Iranian females with SLE. Serum samples of 25 patients with low disease activity , SLE-DAI score 7, 25 with high disease activity, SLE-DAI score ≥7 and 25 normal subjects were assessed for IL-18, anti-ds-DNA, C3, C4 and other lab findings using appropriate methods. Level IL-18 in patients with SLE-DAI score ≥7 was significantly higher than patients with low disease activity and controls (p=0.026 and p =0.005, respectively). Results and discussion: In patients with high disease activity, a positive correlation was found between serum levels of IL-18 with DsDNA antibody (r^2= 0.38, p=0.03), protein levels in 24 hours collected urine (r^2= 0.53, p= 0.007), platelet counts (r^2= 0.506, p=0.01) and it correlates negatively with serum C3 levels (r^2=–0.42, p=0.02). Conclusion: The findings point to important role of IL-18 in SLE patients with disease activity higher than SLE-DAI score 7.