Il-17 Is Aberrantly Overexpressed Among Under-Treatment Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Background & objective: systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) is an autoimmune disease with chronic inflammatory immune response. current therapies mostly rely on glucocorticoids which are accompanied by side-effects and mostly fail to achieve a favorable remission. th17 subpopulation of t cells is increased in exacerbated sle as il-17 cytokine is overexpressed. however, il-17 is reported to be resistant to glucocorticoids in various disorders. here, we evaluated the plasma level of il-17 among newly diagnosed and under-treatment sle patients to understand the effect of glucocorticoids on th17 response. methods: a total of 40 female sle patients and 20 age- and sex- matched normal subjects were enrolled. il-17 plasma level was evaluated using elisa cytokine assay and analyzed with previously obtained il-10, ifn-γ, and gilz levels. results: our findings revealed that il-17 was overexpressed among under-treatment sle patients. there was a significant correlation between il-17 and ifn-γ and significant reverse correlations between il-17, il-10, and gilz levels. il-17 was not significantly correlated with the disease activity. conclusion: according to the role of il-17 in tissue injury and the fact that glucocorticoids are not successful in preventing organ damages in sle, the overexpressed il-17 in response to therapies could be introduced as an underlying reason.