Correlation Between Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Levels, Free Fatty Acid Levels, and Soluble Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Levels in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Fazria Nasriati; Rudy Hidayat; Budiman Budiman; Ikhwan Rinaldi

doi:10.2174/1874312901812010086

Correlation Between Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Levels, Free Fatty Acid Levels, and Soluble Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Levels in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Open Rheumatol J. 2018 Jul 19:12:86-93. doi: 10.2174/1874312901812010086. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Fazria Nasriati¹, Rudy Hidayat², Budiman Budiman³, Ikhwan Rinaldi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia -s Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jalan Diponegoro 71,Jakarta 10310,Indonesia.
² Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia - Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jalan Diponegoro 71,Jakarta,Indonesia.
³ Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia - Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jalan Diponegoro 71,Jakarta,Indonesia.
⁴ Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Universitas Indonesia - Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jalan Diponegoro 71,Jakarta,Indonesia.

Abstract

Background: The mortality of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is quite high, which is largely due to cardiovascular complications caused by endothelial dysfunction. One of the important inflammatory mediators that contribute to RA joints arthritis of TNF-α, also proven to play a role in endothelial dysfunction and play a role in increasing intracellular lipolysis, thus increasing circulating FFA levels.

Objectives: To determine the correlation between TNF-α levels with VCAM-1 levels, correlation of TNF-α levels with FFA levels, and correlation of FFA levels with VCAM-1 levels.

Methods: Cross sectional and retrospective design studies of adult RA patients treated at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM), without metabolic disturbances, acute infection, cardiovascular disorders, or other autoimmune diseases. The cross-sectional data was collected from October to November 2017, while retrospective samples were collected since August 2016. TNF-α, VCAM-1, and FFA levels were assessed by serum blood test by ELISA method. Correlation analysis is done by Pearson analysis when the data distribution is normal and with Spearman analysis when the data distribution is not normal.

Results: A total of 35 subjects were enrolled in the study. Most (97.1%) were women with an average age of 45.29 years, median disease duration of 48 months, and most had moderate disease activity (65.7%). No significant correlation was found between TNF-α levels and VCAM-1 levels (p = 0.677; r = +0.073). as well betwen TNF-α levels and FFA levels (p = 0.227; r = -0.21). The correlation between FFA and VCAM-1 levels showed significant correlation with negative correlation and weak correlation (p = 0.036; r = -0.355).

Conclusions: (1) There was no correlation between TNF-α levels and VCAM-1 levels in RA patients; (2) There was no correlation between TNF-α levels and FFA levels in RA patients; (3) There was a negative correlation between FFA levels and VCAM-1 levels in RA patients.

Keywords: ELISA; FFA; Free Fatty Acids; Rheumatoid Arthritis; SLE; Tumor Necrosis Factor-α; Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1.