Raised concentration of soluble form of vascular endothelial cadherin and IL-23 in sera of patients with Behçet's disease

Abstract Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem vasculitis disease that can affect any organ and usually is combined with hyperactivation of neutrophils. Involvement of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-12 in BD has been shown before. However, IL-12 shares a p40 subunit with IL-23, which has additional inflammatory effects apart of IL-12. IL-23 increases neutrophils' transmigration and therefore could contribute in BD induction or progression. Moreover, endothelial cells express vascular endothelial cadherin adhesion molecule (VE-cadherin), which plays critical roles in angiogenesis and endothelial integrity. VE-cadherin may shed into the circulation in a soluble form (sVE-cadherin), and inflammatory cytokines can increase this process. Therefore, a correlation between IL-23 concentration and amount of sVE-cadherin was proposed. We enrolled 44 healthy persons and 53 patients with BD of different disease activities and examined their serum concentrations of IL-23 and sVE-cadherin. A significant correlation was found between the concentrations of these two factors among patients only. Comparing sVE-cadherin mean concentration in patients and controls showed a significant difference, which for IL-23 was not considered significant. Results showed higher IL-23 in sera of patients with uveitis. Moreover, there was a meaningful correlation between IL-23 content and disease activity. These results could extend the biological effects of IL-23 in BD and introduce sVE-cadherin as a potential new biomarker in the course of BD pathogenesis.