Arthritis & Rheumatism, Volume 63,
November 2011 Abstract Supplement

Abstracts of the American College of
Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals
Annual Scientific Meeting
Chicago, Illinois November 4-9, 2011.

Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 and Pentraxin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Kiani¹, Adnan, Ueland², Thor, Aukrust², Pal, Magder³, Laurence S., Hollan⁴, Ivana, Petri¹, Michelle

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
The Oslo University, Oslo, Norway
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Lillehammer Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Lillehammer, Norway

Background/Purpose:

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3), a member of the same family as C reactive protein, has been shown to be associated with vascular inflammation. Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine also associated with atherosclerosis. We determined the association of these potential biomarkers with subclinical atherosclerosis measured by coronary artery calcium (CAC), carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and carotid plaque in SLE at two years followup.

Methods:

148 SLE patients (91% female, 64% Caucasian, 31% African-American, 5% others, mean age 45 yrs) had measurement of subclinical atherosclerosis (coronary artery calcium CAC, carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and carotid plaque.

Results:

Values of MCP-1 ranged from 34–668pg/ml (mean=183, SD=101) and PTX3 from 0.16–25ng/ml (mean=2.2, SD=2.6).

Table 1. Shows the association between MCP-1, PTX3 and coronary calcium at baseline.

	Proportion (%) with detectable coronary calcium at baseline	p-value
MCP-1 level (n=148)	17/31 (35%)	0.41
Low	25/53 (47%)
Medium	22/47 (47%)
High
PTX3 level (n=148)	21/51 (41%)	0.75
Low	22/46 (48%)
Medium	21/51 (41%)
High
The lowest rate of CAC was among those with low levels of MCP-1, but this difference was not statistically significant.

Table 2. Shows the association between MCP-1, PTX3 and the mean carotid IMT.

	Baseline IMT		Change in IMT
	Mean IMT	P-value	Mean change from baseline to follow-up	P-value
MCP-1 level	0.57	0.70	0.08	0.88
Low	0.59		0.09
Medium	0.57		0.09
High
PTX3 level	0.58	0.38	0.10	0.69
Low	0.58		0.09
Medium	0.56		0.08
High

Table 3. Shows the association between MCP-1, PTX3 and carotid plaque.

	Proportion (%) with carotid plaque at baseline	p-value	Proportion (%) with carotid plaque at follow-up¹	p-value
MCP-level	7/47 (15%)	0.71	7/37 (19%)	0.72
Low	11/52 (21%)		8/39 (21%)
Medium	8/47 (17%)		9/34 (26%)
High
PTX3 level	13/51 (25%)	0.14²	8/34 (24%)	0.93
Low	8/46 (17%)		8/36 (22%)
Medium	5/49 (10%)		8/40 (20%)
High
¹ Among those who were negative for carotid plaque at baseline.
² P=0.046 for the test for trend providing modest evidence that the proportion with carotid plaque decreases as PTX levels increases.

Conclusion:

MCP-1 and PTX3 have been associated with atherosclerosis in the general population. In general, the PTX3 levels seen in this study were equivalent to those seen in controls in other studies. MCP-1 and PTX3 in SLE were not associated with any marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. In fact, PTX3 even appeared to be protective against carotid plaque.

To cite this abstract, please use the following information:
Kiani, Adnan, Ueland, Thor, Aukrust, Pal, Magder, Laurence S., Hollan, Ivana, Petri, Michelle; Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 and Pentraxin in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 2011;63 Suppl 10 :595
DOI:

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