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Decreased expressions of the TNF-alpha signaling adapters in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are correlated with disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

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Abstract

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is a pleiotropic cytokine. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease. However, until now, the expression and pathophysiological role of TNF adapters in SLE have been poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the expression of mRNA for the TNF adapter proteins including TNF receptor-associated death domain (TRADD) protein, Fas-associated death domain (FADD) protein, receptor-interacting protein 1 (RIP-1), and TNF receptor-associated factor-2 (TRAF-2) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with SLE and to explore the relationship between the expression of these adapters and the SLE disease activity. PBMCs were isolated from the venous blood of 51 SLE patients and 17 healthy subjects. The expression of mRNA for TNF adapter molecules such as TRADD, FADD, RIP-1, and TRAF-2 in PBMCs were analyzed by semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) and quantitative real-time RT–PCR. There were constitutive expressions of mRNA for TRADD, FADD, RIP-1, and TRAF-2 in PBMCs from healthy subjects. The expression of mRNA for all the adapter molecules significantly decreased in PBMCs from patients with SLE, which were 0.38-, 0.69-, 0.59-, and 0.55-fold, respectively, compared to those of control subjects (P < 0.05). The expression of Caspase 3 was significantly increased in SLE patients (P < 0.01); however, the expression of IL-1beta was not significantly different between SLE and control subjects. The expression of TRADD, FADD, RIP-1, and TRAF-2 in PBMCs from patients with SLE were negatively correlated with SLEDAI, the correlation coefficient of which was −0.285, −0.280, −0.307, and −0.298, respectively (P < 0.05). The expression of mRNA for TNF adapter molecules TRADD, FADD, RIP-1, and TRAF-2 decreased significantly in PBMCs from patients with SLE, and the expression of these adapters were negatively correlated with the SLE activity index. These abnormalities may be involved in the immunopathogenic injury mediated by the aberration TNF-alpha signaling pathway in SLE.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank all the patients, healthy volunteers, and all the medical staff who generously collaborated with this research. We are grateful to Prof. Youyan Yang, Hanshi Xu, and the staff of the Division of Department of Rheumatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University for their assistance with the sample collection. This work is supported by the Chinese National Natural Science Research Grant (Grant no. 30271668 and 30572290) to Prof. Xiao Yang.

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  1. Department of Nephrology, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 510080, Guangzhou, China

    Langjing Zhu, Xiao Yang, Weiying Chen, Xiaoyan Li, Yulian Ji, Haiping Mao, Jing Nie & Xueqing Yu

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  1. Langjing Zhu
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Correspondence to Xiao Yang.

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Zhu, L., Yang, X., Chen, W. et al. Decreased expressions of the TNF-alpha signaling adapters in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are correlated with disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Rheumatol 26, 1481–1489 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-006-0531-8

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