CIRCULATING INTERCELLULAR-ADHESION MOLECULES IN BLOOD AND BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE IN BEHCETS-DISEASE

THE aim of this study was to evaluate circulating intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (cICAM-1) in serum and in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), as a marker for the inflammatory process in patients with active Behcet's disease (ED). Circulating ICAM-1 was tested by an enzyme Linked immunosorbent assay in serum and in BAL of patients with ED. These values were compared to those of patients with tuberculosis and to healthy controls. increased levels of circulating ICAM-1 were found in serum from patients with active ED compared to healthy controls (p < 0.01). Similar levels of serum cICAM-1 were found in ED and tuberculosis. Additionally, both ED and tuberculosis patients exhibited high levels of cICAM-1 in BAL, fluid, suggesting that this increase may be a result of the immune system activation in inflammatory sites. Circulating ICAM-1 seemed to have a good discriminative power in identifying active ED, being elevated in all active stages (p < 0.01) compared to remission ED stage. No differences were found in active ED patients depending upon the clinical manifestations. These results suggest that cICAM-1 may be involved in leucocyte adhesion and migration into the vessel wall of the lung. Circulating forms are derived from molecules expressed on the surface of activated cells, as a result of an inflammatory process.