Possible Role of lnterleukin-6 in Rheumatoid Arthritis

ABSTRACT

Rheumatoid Arthritis [RA] is an autoimniune disease. Many etiological agents are proposed to play a role in its pathogenecisy. One of these factors is cytokines such as Interleukin6. ELISA method has been used for IL-6 estimation in 75 RA patients in comparison with 67 SLE as patient controls and 39 apparently healthy controls. This study showed that there was an elevation of IL -6 in the sera of RA patients with high significant differences between RA patients and controls [P < 0.001]. Moreover a good correlation between IL-6 level and RE titer were observed However, for most patients with high IL-6 were shown to be HLA-DR4. Interleukin-6 play a crucial role in the disease which may be participate in the severity of RA and subsequently its treatment