PMID- 20640910 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20110104 LR - 20220408 IS - 1434-9949 (Electronic) IS - 0770-3198 (Linking) VI - 29 IP - 11 DP - 2010 Nov TI - Circulating levels of interleukin-6, vascular endothelial growth factor, YKL-40, matrix metalloproteinase-3, and total aggrecan in spondyloarthritis patients during 3 years of treatment with TNFalpha inhibitors. PG - 1301-9 LID - 10.1007/s10067-010-1528-x [doi] AB - The objectives of the study were to investigate short and long-term changes and relations to treatment response of plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), YKL-40, matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), and total aggrecan in patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) treated with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) inhibitors and to compare with levels in healthy subjects. Biomarkers were measured in an observational cohort of 49 SpA patients (ankylosing spondylitis, n=32, and psoriatic arthritis, n=17) initiating TNFalpha inhibitor therapy (infliximab, n=38; etanercept, n=8; and adalimumab, n=3) and compared with levels in healthy subjects. Clinical parameters and biomarkers were measured at baseline, weeks 2, 6, and every 6-12 weeks for up to 3 years. Patients with co-morbidities (n=4), missing baseline samples (n=3), and adverse events (n=5) were excluded. Patients with SpA had compared with healthy subjects elevated IL-6 (median 8.5 ng/l (range, 0.98-64) vs. 1.3 (0.33-26)), VEGF (105 ng/l (22-752) vs. 45 (12-351)), YKL-40 (74 mug/l (14-572) vs. 43 (20-184)), and MMP-3 (43 mug/l (9.1-401) vs. 16 (2.5-47), p