http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8200 Sat, 18 May 2013 21:19:50 GMT 2013-05-18T21:19:50Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8432 Linkage of Type I Interferon Activity and TNF-Alpha Levels in Serum with Sarcoidosis Manifestations and Ancestry Sweiss, Nadera J.; Zhang, Wei; Franek, Beverly S.; Kariuki, Silvia N.; Moller, David R.; Patterson, Karen C.; Bennett, Peggy; Girijala, Lakshmi R.; Nair, Vaisak; Baughman, Robert P.; Garcia, Joe G. N.; Niewold, Timothy B. Background: Both type I interferon (IFN), also known as IFN-a and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis. We investigated serum levels of these cytokines in a large multi-ancestral sarcoidosis population to determine correlations between cytokine levels and disease phenotypes. Methods: We studied serum samples from 98 patients with sarcoidosis, including 71 patients of African-American ancestry and 27 patients of European-American ancestry. Serum type I IFN was measured using a sensitive reporter cell assay and serum TNF-a was measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Clinical data including presence or absence of neurologic, cardiac, and severe pulmonary manifestations of sarcoidosis were abstracted from medical records. Twenty age-matched nonautoimmune controls were also studied from each ancestral background. Differences in cytokine levels between groups were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test, and correlations were assessed using Spearman’s rho. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to detect associations between cytokines and clinical manifestations. Results: Significant differences in cytokine levels were observed between African- and European-American patients with sarcoidosis. In African-Americans, serum TNF-a levels were significantly higher relative to matched controls (P = 0.039), and patients with neurologic disease had significantly higher TNF-a than patients lacking this anifestation (P = 0.022). In European-Americans, serum type I IFN activity was higher in sarcoidosis cases as compared to matched controls, and patients with extra-pulmonary disease represented a high serum IFN subgroup (P = 0.0032). None of the associations observed were shared between the two ancestral groups. Conclusions: Our data indicate that significant associations between serum levels of TNF-a and type I IFN and clinical manifestations exist in a sarcoidosis cohort that differ significantly by self-reported ancestry. In each ancestral background, the cytokine elevated in patients with sarcoidosis was also associated with a particular disease phenotype. These findings may relate to ancestral differences in the molecular pathogenesis of this heterogeneous disease. © 2011 Sweiss et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029126 Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8432 2011-12-14T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8415 The Prevalence of Fibromyalgia in Other Chronic Pain Conditions B. Yunus, Muhammad Central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) include fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), irritable bowel syndrome, temporomandibular disorder, restless legs syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other similar chronic painful conditions that are based on central sensitization (CS). CSS are mutually associated. In this paper, prevalence of FMS among other members of CSS has been described. An important recent recognition is an increased prevalence of FMS in other chronic pain conditions with structural pathology, for example, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, and inflammatory bowel disease. Diagnosis and proper management of FMS among these diseases are of crucial importance so that unwarranted use of such medications as corticosteroids can be avoided, since FMS often occurs when RA or SLE is relatively mild. Copyright © 2012 Muhammad B. Yunus. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.1155/2012/584573 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8415 2012-01-01T06:00:00Z