Key result
Patients with idiopathic and systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension had significantly higher serum levels of MIF and SCGF β compared to systemic sclerosis patients without PAH.
Why the study?
Are serum levels of MIF and SCGF β elevated in patients with idiopathic and SSc-associated PAH?
Case-Control (n=54)
No
Are serum levels of MIF and SCGF β elevated in patients with idiopathic and SSc-associated PAH?
Absolute Event Rate: 333% vs 175%
p-value: p=0.018
Serum levels of MIF and SCGF β are elevated in patients with idiopathic and SSc-associated PAH, suggesting their potential utility as biomarkers for the disease.
Elevated MIF and SCGF β levels support biomarker research in PAH; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can be idiopathic or secondary to autoimmune diseases, and it represents one of the most threatening complications of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine with proinflammatory functions that appears to be involved in the pathogenesis of hypoxia-induced PH. In SSc patients, high serum levels of MIF have been associated with the development of ulcers and PAH. Stem cell growth factor β (SCGF β) is a human growth factor that, together with MIF, is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic spinal cord injury. The aim of our study was to measure serum levels of MIF in patients with idiopathic and SSc-associated PAH. We enrolled 13 patients with idiopathic PAH and 15 with SSc-associated PAH. We also selected 14 SSc patients without PAH and 12 normal healthy controls, matched for sex and age. PAH was confirmed by right hearth catheterism (mPAP>25 mmHg). MIF and SCGF β levels were measured by ELISA. We found significantly higher circulating levels of MIF and of SCGF β in patients with idiopathic PAH (P=0.03 and P=0.004) and with PAH secondary to SSc (P=0.018 and P=0.023) compared to SSc patients without PAH. Higher levels of MIF were found in those patients with an higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (P=0.03). We can hypothesize that MIF and SCGF β are able to play a role in PAH, both idiopathic or secondary, and in the future they may be evaluated as useful biomarkers and prognostic factors for this serious vascular disease.
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Stefanantoni et al. (2015) conducted a case-control in Pulmonary arterial hypertension (idiopathic and systemic sclerosis-associated) (n=54). Pulmonary arterial hypertension (idiopathic or SSc-associated) vs. Systemic sclerosis without PAH and healthy controls was evaluated on Serum levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in SSc-associated PAH vs SSc without PAH (p=0.018). Patients with idiopathic and systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension had significantly higher serum levels of MIF and SCGF β compared to systemic sclerosis patients without PAH.
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