An investigation of the relationship between Behçet’s disease and tenascin-C

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate serum tenascin-C levels and its relationship with pathogenesis of Behçet’s disease (BD) with inflammatory processes.

Patients and methods: This prospective and analytical study included 34 BD patients (19 males, 15 females; mean age: 31.5±8.2 years; range, 18 to 48 years) who met the 2014 International Criteria for Behçet's Disease and had no comorbidities and 37 healthy volunteers (21 females, 16 males; mean age: 29.6±5.3 years; range, 21 to 45 years). Sex, age, age at diagnosis, clinical and laboratory data, medication use, and smoking history of the participants were recorded. Serum tenascin-C levels were measured using a commercially available tenascin-C enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit.

Results: There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of age (p=0.262) and sex (p=0.287). Serum tenascin-C levels were significantly lower in the BD group (10,824±7,612 pg/mL) compared to the control group (27,574±14,533 pg/mL, p<0.001). In the receiver operating characteristic analysis performed for the diagnostic value of tenascin-C level in BD, the sensitivity was determined as 79.4% and the specificity as 82.5% (p<0.001). No statistically significant difference was observed in tenascin-C levels in correlation with clinical characteristics, laboratory values, medication use, and smoking in the BD group.

Conclusion: In contrast to other chronic inflammatory diseases, lower levels of tenascin-C were observed in patients with BD than in the healthy individuals, which can be attributed to the absence of prolonged chronic inflammatory course in BD. The fact that tenascin-C levels are high in other rheumatic inflammatory diseases but low in BD may be useful in the differential diagnosis of BD.

Citation: Kaplan H, Yalcin Kehribar D, Okuyucu M, Ozgen M. An investigation of the relationship between Behçet’s disease and tenascin-C. Arch Rheumatol 2024;39(1):107-114. doi: 10.46497/ ArchRheumatol.2024.10163.

The study protocol was approved by the Ondokuz Mayıs University Clinical Research Ethics Committee (date: 27.10.2021, no: B.30.2.ODM.0.20.08/646-423). The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

A written informed consent was obtained from each patient.

Idea/concept: H.K.; Design: D.Y.K., M.O; Control/supervision: M.O.; Data Collection and/or processing: H.K.; Analysis and/or interpretation: D.Y.K.; Literature review: M.O.; Writing the article: H.K., D.Y.K.; Critical review: M.O.; References and fundings: M.O.; Materials: D.Y.K.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.