Assessment of homocysteine, neopterin and nitric oxide levels in Behcet's disease
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Yeşim Özkan
Abstract
Background: Behçet's disease is a multysystemic immunoinflammatory disease with a wide variety of clinical manifestations, whereas recurrent aphthous stomatitis is a local oral disease. The aim of this study was to examine the distribution of homocysteine levels in patients with active Behçet's disease, possible association of homocysteine with nitric oxide and neopterin levels, and to characterize the differences between patients with Behçet's disease and those with recurrent aphthous stomatitis in terms of these parameters compared with healthy controls.
Methods: A total of 23 patients with active Behçet's disease, 25 patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis as positive controls, and 21 healthy subjects were included in this study. Serum homocysteine and neopterin levels were measured flourimetrically by HPLC. Serum nitric oxide production was assayed by measuring total nitrite levels with Griess reagent.
Results: Significantly higher homocysteine (12.9±3.3 μmol/L) and lower nitric oxide (41.5±10.9 μmol/L) and neopterin (6.4±1.0 nmol/L) levels were observed in patients with Behçet's disease compared with healthy controls (10.7±2.0 μmol/L, 49.7±16.2 μmol/L, 8.7±2.2 nmol/L, respectively) (p<0.03 for neopterin, p<0.04 for homocysteine and nitric oxide). However, homocysteine, nitric oxide, biopterin and neopterin levels and the neopterin/biopterin ratio for recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients were not significantly different compared to healthy controls. A significant positive correlation was observed between serum homocysteine and serum neopterin/biopterin ratio in patients with Behçet's disease (r=0.975, p<0.005).
Conclusions: In contrast to recurrent aphthous stomatitis, there is a higher prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in Behcet's disease. Homocysteine may have deleterious effects on the pathology of Behcet's disease by decreasing nitric oxide levels and interfering with the immune system.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2007;45:73–7.
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©2007 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- CCLM: Bringing advances in laboratory medicine to the “New World”
- Diagnostic approach to inherited bleeding disorders
- Linking laboratory and medication data: new opportunities for pharmacoepidemiological research
- Association between polymorphisms of ACE, B2AR, ANP and ENOS and cardiovascular diseases: a community-based study in the Matsu area
- Anti-thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibodies determined by second-generation assay
- Serum levels of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) in pancreatic cancer patients
- Surrogate markers of insulin resistance in assessing individuals with new categories “prehypertension” and “prediabetes”
- Evaluation of pre-analytical, demographic, behavioural and metabolic variables on fibrinolysis and haemostasis activation markers utilised to assess hypercoagulability
- Hyperhomocysteinaemia and immune activation in patients with cancer
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- Pregnancy-associated plasma protein A in dialysis patients
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