Circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines and cytokine receptors in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: a cross-sectional comparative study

Abstract

Significantly higher plasma levels of sTNF-R1, sTNF-R2, and OPG and numerically but non-significantly higher levels of IL-23 were found in AS patients compared to controls, indicating that these cytokines and cytokine receptors are important inflammatory pathways. Clinical measures of disease activity were not significantly correlated with circulating inflammatory markers.