Increased levels of circulating intercellular adhesion molecule 1 in the sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

The greatest elevations of cICAM-1 were seen in RA patient sera. In both RA and OA, synovial fluid cICAM-1 levels were consistently lower than serum levels, suggesting that cICAM-1 did not originate in the synovium. Because the production of cICAM-1 can be increased by cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1, tumor necrosis factor alpha), elevated levels of circulating ICAM-1 in RA may be reflective of systemic exposure to elevated cytokine levels.