Investigation of free-radical participation in collagen disease and vasculitis syndrome in childhood

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05670709
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Pediatrics
• Research Institution: Osaka Medical College
• Principal Investigator: KITAGAWA Makoto Osaka Medical College, Department of medicine, lecturer, 医学部, 講師 (70175298)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MINO M Osaka Medical College, Department of medicine, professor, 医学部, 教授 (70090206) ; KAWAMURA N Osaka Medical College, Department of medicine, assistant, 医学部, 助手 (50247863) ; OGIWARA T Osaka Medical College, Department of medicine, assistant, 医学部, 助手 (00211128)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1994
• Keywords: collagen disease of childhood / vasculitis / free-radical / alpha-tocopherol / cytokine / リンパ球幼若化反応

Research Abstract

We investigated 33 pediatric patients of collagen disease and vasuculitis syndrome (5 patients of systemic lupus erytematosus, 5 of juvenile rheumatic arthritis, 12 of Henoch-Schonlein purpura, 2 of muco-cutaneous lymphonode syndrome and 3 of others) and obtained the following results.
1.The soluble IL-2 receptor levels of these disorders were heigher than those of control group. This finding indicates that lymphoctes and macrophges were activated by cytokines (such as IL-1 and TNF-B) in such systemic vasuculitis diseases and the excess production of free radicals or active oxigen species were induced by such cytokines which act as various mediators in local vasculitis region.
2.We measured serum, red blood cell and lymphocyte alpha-tocopherol levels as index of anti-oxidative ability. Lymphocyte alpha-tocopherol level was reduced in these group on the other hand serum and red blood cell alpha-tocopherol levels did not change. This finding indicates that oxidative stress increased in such disorders and reduced anti-oxidative ability affected immunological functions of lymphocytes.
3.To investigate whether immunological functions of lymphocytes were affected in such disorders or not we tested lymphoblastic reactions induced by mitogen and also other immunological tests. No signihicant changes in these immunological tests observed compared with normal contol group, because we have not taken sufficient numbers of patients to conclude the result.