Evaluation of B-cell activating factor in corticosteroid-treated systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Background b-cell activating factor (baff) is one of the key regulators of b-cell function. overexpression of baff is a characteristic feature of systemic lupus erythematosus (sle). the effect of low-dose long-term corticosteroid therapy on baff level and its relation to clinical and laboratory findings in sle patients were not thoroughly investigated. objective to evaluate the effect of low-dose long-term corticosteroid therapy on serum baff levels, and to relate the baff results with various clinical and laboratory features. patients and methods this study included 40 egyptian sle patients receiving a low-dose corticosteroid regimen (20mg prednisone orally daily) for a period of 6 months together with 40 controls. patients were evaluated both clinically and serologically. blood samples taken from each patient and control were subjected to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for estimation of serum baff level. results baff level was elevated in 75% of corticosteroid-treated sle patients and its mean level (1.468 ±1.540 ng/ml) was significantly higher than its mean in controls (0.517 ± 0.175 ng/ml), with a p value less than 0.001. no statistically significant relationship was detected between elevated baff level and any of the clinical and laboratory features except for disease duration (p= 0.005). conclusion steroid doses of 20 mg/day are ineffective in lowering baff level to its normal level. no correlation between elevated baff level and any clinical or laboratory finding was detected in our treated sle patients.