الفهرس 
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Abstract
The body’s first line of defense against foreign pathogenic microorganisms and cell damage is the innate immunity which depends on inflammasomes that are significant signaling complexes. Additionally, they strengthen the immune system defenses. Research of human inflammasomes indicates a key role for these molecules in the development of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
The aim of the present work is to reveal the contribution of some inflammasomes genes (NLRP1, ASC, caspase-1, and NLRC4) in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and demonstrate if the usual treatment has an effect on the expression of these genes. In addition, the study proposed to explain the connection between the expression levels of NLRP1, ASC, caspase-1, and NLRC4 genes and the serum levels of IL-18 and IL-1β.
A total of 77 blood samples were recovered from 37 treated and 15 untreated RA cases admitted at Sohag university hospital and 25 healthy controls. In this study, there were 25 healthy controls of which 7 (28.0%) were males and 18 (72.0%) were females, 15 untreated RA cases of which 1 (6.7%) was male 14 (93.3%), and 37 treated RA cases of which 2 (5.4%) were males and 35 (94.6%) were females.
According to the present findings, RF is positive in 86.5% of treated patients and 66.7% of untreated individuals. Positive patients had elevated levels of RF titre and anti-CCP titre, but there was no significant difference between the treated and untreated groups in terms of RF titre and Anti-CCP titre. In contrast, all RA patients had elevated levels of ESR, with a significant difference between the treated and untreated patients.
The expression level of NLRP1 and ASC inflammasomes genes was significantly lower in untreated group than treated and healthy control groups on the other hand the expression level of caspase-1 and NLRC4 was higher in untreated patients compared to treated and control groups.
Disruption of inflammasomes regulation in the end leads to increase in the serum levels of IL-18 and IL-1β. Serum levels of IL-18 and IL-1β were higher in untreated group in comparison to treated and healthy control groups.
These results suggest that the expression level of inflammasomes is dysregulated in RA patients which reveals their role in the development of the disease, this disturbance is modulated to some extent with the treatment which causes change in the expression levels of inflammasomes that demonstrate the efficacy of this regimen not only in decreasing symptoms of the disease but also in compensating immune parameters as inflammasomes, IL-18 and IL-1β.
There was no correlation between the expression levels of inflammasome genes and serum levels of IL-18 and IL-1β. So, it is concluded that any disturbance in this signaling pathway (up or down regulation of inflammasomes) can lead to the progress of inflammatory diseases.
Negative correlation between NLRC4 expression level and anti-CCP level was observed also negative correlation was indicated between NLRP1 expression level and ESR. In contrast, positive correlation between ASC expression level and RF was illustrated. Accordingly, it is suggested that inflammasomes signaling pathways are greatly involved in RA pathogenesis and the expression levels of NLRC4, NLRP1, and ASC genes are closely related to RA severity.