Objective: To detect the correlation between survivin and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to determine the possible mechanism of RA and multidrug resistance in refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RRA).
Methods: We collected 15 normal controls, 35 early untreated RA patients, 20 effectively treated RA patients and 25 RRA patients according to selection standard. The expression of survivin in the peripheral blood lymphocytes was detected by immunocytochemical method.
Results: There was significant difference in the survivin expression in the peripheral blood lymphocytes between the early untreated and normal control group (χ(2)=29.59, P<0.01). The survivin expression in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of effectively treated RA group slightly elevated, but had no significant difference with the normal control group (χ(2)=1.591, P>0.05). The survivin expression in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of the RRA group was significantly stronger than in the effectively treated RA group (χ(2)=24.35, P<0.01), and normal control group (χ(2)=26.53, P<0.01), with no significant difference compared with early untreated group (χ(2)=0.014,P>0.05).
Conclusion: Survivin has an influential role in the occurrence and development of rheumatism arthritis. Survivin might be involved in refractory multidrug resistance of RA and be one of the multidrug resistance mechanism of RRA.