ABSTRACT
IL-23 activates pathogenic Th17 cells to drive inflammatory disease at barrier surfaces. Kim et al. now identify oral epithelial cells as the critical producers of IL-23 in human and mouse periodontitis, linking microbial dysbiosis to non-hematopoietic regulation of IL-17-associated inflammation.
Subject(s)
Inflammation , Periodontitis , Humans , Animals , Mice , Inflammation/pathology , Epithelial Cells/pathology , Interleukin-23 , Th17 Cells/pathology , DysbiosisABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: There is a paucity of available biomarkers of disease activity in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), and serum cytokines/chemokines hold potential as candidate biomarkers. We aimed to determine serum cytokine profiles of IIM patients with active disease as compared to patients in remission and healthy controls. METHODS: The IIM patients with active disease (included patients enrolled in repository corticotropin injection trial), in remission, and healthy controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional observational study. Serum concentrations of 51 cytokines/chemokines were obtained by utilising a bead-based multiplex cytokine assay (Luminex®). The myositis core set measures were obtained for all the patients. Cytokines with the best predictive ability to differentiate these clinical groups were assessed with three methods: 1) Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator modelling, 2) stepwise approach, and 3) logistic regression model. RESULTS: Twenty-one IIM patients with active disease, 11 IIM patients in remission and 10 healthy controls were enrolled. Myositis patients had elevated levels of chemokines that attract eosinophils (eotaxin) and dendritic cells, NK cells, cytotoxic T-cells and monocytes/macrophages (CXCL-9, IP-10), cytokines that drive T-helper 1 responses (TNF-a, lymphotoxin-a), matrix degrading enzymes (MMP-3 and -9), and IGFBP-2 compared to healthy controls. Myositis patients with active disease had higher levels of lymphotoxin-a, CXCL-9, MIP-1a, MIP-1b and MMP-3 than patients in remission. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated differences in cytokine profiles of IIM patients (active and inactive disease) compared to healthy controls and identified some cytokines that could potentially be used as biomarkers. Larger longitudinal studies are needed to validate our findings.
Subject(s)
Matrix Metalloproteinase 3 , Myositis , Adult , Humans , Lymphotoxin-alpha , Cross-Sectional Studies , Cytokines , Chemokines , Myositis/diagnosis , BiomarkersABSTRACT
Th17 cell plasticity is associated with pathogenicity in chronic inflammation. In a model of periodontitis, McClure et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20232015) describe location-dependent divergence in Th17 plasticity, with surprisingly limited conversion in inflamed gingiva but emergence of protective exTh17-TfH cells in draining LN that enhance protective antibody.