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Elevated serum level of growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6) in systemic lupus erythematosus patients is associated with nephritis and cutaneous vasculitis

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Abstract

Growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6) is a serum protein involved in granulocyte, platelet and endothelium interaction, and is implicated in both anti-inflammatory response as well as platelet/leukocytes activation. We investigated serum Gas6 level in different clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Data were collected in 83 patients with SLE and 40 non-lupus controls. The Gas6 levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Our results demonstrated that the Gas6 level was higher in SLE patients as compared to the non-lupus control subjects (SLE vs. non-lupus control, median [inter-quartile range (IQR)] 22.67 [19.40–28.60] vs. 18.97 [16.05–20.62] ng/mL, p < 0.01). Furthermore, Gas6 level was higher in patients with nephritis (nephritis vs. non-nephritis, median [IQR] 26.21 [21.17–31.61] vs. 22.22 [18.98–26.98] ng/mL, p = 0.03) and in patients with cutaneous vasculitis (vasculitis vs. non-vasculitis, median [IQR] 27.89 [23.24–34.26] vs. 22.30 [19.32–27.16] ng/mL, p = 0.03). Our results indicate that the serum Gas6 level is increased in SLE patients with lupus nephritis or cutaneous vasculitis, implicating a potential to serve as a SLE disease activity marker.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC95-2320-B-002-081, NSC98-3112-B-002-047, NSC98-2320-B-002-021-MY2 and NSC98-2320-B-002-049-MY3) and the National Taiwan University Hospital (VN-9801).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chien-Sheng Wu

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chien-Sheng Wu, I-Tsu Chyuan & Ping-Ning Hsu

  3. Graduate Institute of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chung-Yi Hu, Cheng-Ju Chan & Sheng-Kai Chang

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chung-Yi Hu

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Hwei-Fang Tsai

  6. Gradute Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Hwei-Fang Tsai

  7. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    I-Tsu Chyuan

  8. Graduate Institute of Immunology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Jen-Ai Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan

    Ping-Ning Hsu

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  1. Chien-Sheng Wu
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Correspondence to Ping-Ning Hsu.

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Chien-Sheng Wu and Chung-Yi Hu have contributed equally to this work.

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Wu, CS., Hu, CY., Tsai, HF. et al. Elevated serum level of growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6) in systemic lupus erythematosus patients is associated with nephritis and cutaneous vasculitis. Rheumatol Int 34, 625–629 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-013-2882-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-013-2882-1

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