血清鼠科肉瘤病毒癌基因同源物B1蛋白的检测与类风湿关节炎

目的：检测类风湿关节炎（rheumatoid arthritis, RA）患者血清中鼠科肉瘤病毒癌基因同源物B1（v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1, BRAF）蛋白水平，探讨该蛋白在RA诊断中的意义。方法： 纳入RA患者78例、其他风湿病患者96例、健康对照30例，应用酶联免疫吸附法（enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, ELISA）检测所有患者血清中BRAF蛋白水平，分析BRAF蛋白与RA患者临床与实验室指标的关系。 结果： RA患者血清中BRAF蛋白水平明显高于其他风湿病组(P<0.01)及健康对照组（P<0.01）,BRAF蛋白与类风湿因子（rheumatoid factor，RF）及免疫球蛋白A（immunoglobulin A, IgA）水平呈正相关（P<0.01），与其他临床、实验室指标及细胞因子无相关性。将RA患者分为BRAF蛋白升高组及正常组，比较两组之间的差异，结果显示两组在临床及实验室指标分布上差异均无统计学意义。结论： RA患者血清中BRAF蛋白水平显著高于其他疾病组及健康对照组，提示BRAF蛋白可能参与RA的发病过程。

Significance of v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1 in rheumatoid arthritis

Objective： To detect serum v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1 (BRAF) protein levels and to investigate their clinical significance in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Me-thods: Serum samples were obtained from 78 RA patients, 32 osteoarthritis (OA) patients, 16 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, 16 gout patients, 16 ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, 16 Sj-gren syndrome (SS) patients and 30 healthy controls. BRAF protein in the sera was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The associations between BRAF levels and the clinical features including age, sex, disease duration, swelling joints, tenderness joints, duration of moning stiffness, joint deformity, visual assessment scale (VAS) and extra articular manifestations and laboratory parameters including erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF), disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28), anti cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibo-dy, antikeratin antibody, antnuclear antibody (ANA), immunoglobulin and cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-17A in RA patients were evaluated. Data analyses were performed by using SPSS 19.0 program. Results: The serum BRAF protein levels in the RA patients were significantly higher than those of other rheumatic diseases groups including OA, SLE, AS, SS, gout patients and healthy controls, the P value was 0.002, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, 0.001 and <0.001 respectively. The level of serum BRAF protein in the RA patients showed a positive correlation with the rheumatoid factor (P=0.009) and IgA levels (P=0.006), but no correlation with clinical features, such as age and duration or other laboratory parameters, including CRP, ESR, anti CCP antibody, IgM, IgG, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-17A. The RA patients were further divided into normal levels of BRAF protein group and elevated levels of BRAF protein group. Compared with the clinical features and laboratory indexes of normal and elevated levels of BRAF protein groups in the RA patients, there was no significant difference between the two groups in age, duration, DAS28, CRP, ESR, RF, anti CCP, IgA, IgG, IgM, TNF-α or IL-6. Conclusion: The elevated level of BRAF protein in the RA patients showed that BRAF might play a role in the pathogenesis of RA. Further researches on BRAF gene expression may help to clarify the role of BRAF in RA.