TY - JOUR T1 - Disease Activity Improvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Inhibitors Correlates with Increased Soluble Fas Levels JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1961 LP - 1965 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.131544 VL - 41 IS - 10 AU - Eloisa Romano AU - Riccardo Terenzi AU - Mirko Manetti AU - Francesca Peruzzi AU - Ginevra Fiori AU - Francesca Nacci AU - Silvia Bellando-Randone AU - Marco Matucci-Cerinic AU - Serena Guiducci Y1 - 2014/10/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/41/10/1961.abstract N2 - Objective. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by chronic synovial inflammation and hyperplasia. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plays a pivotal role in RA by interfering with the Fas–Fas ligand (FasL) proapoptotic pathway. We investigated the circulating levels of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble FasL (sFasL), and their possible correlation with disease activity and improvement after anti-TNF-α treatment in RA. Methods. Serum levels of sFas and sFasL were measured by quantitative ELISA in 52 patients with RA before and after 3 months of anti-TNF-α treatment (adalimumab, n = 32; infliximab, n = 20). Disease activity measures [Disease Activity Score at 28 joints-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP)] were recorded before and after treatment. Forty age-matched and sex-matched healthy subjects served as controls. Results. No significant differences in serum sFas levels were detected between anti-TNF-α-naive patients with RA and controls. After anti-TNF-α treatment, serum sFas levels significantly increased in patients with RA compared to both anti-TNF-α-naive patients and controls. Increased sFas levels inversely correlated with disease activity variables (DAS28-ESR: r = −0.739, CRP: r = −0.636, both p < 0.001). No significant differences in sFasL levels were detected in patients with RA before and after anti-TNF-α treatment. Conclusion. In RA, an increase in sFas levels closely correlates with improvement in disease activity induced by TNF-α inhibitors, suggesting their ability to modulate Fas-mediated synoviocyte apoptosis. ER -