RESEARCH - Association of RA with ergothioneine levels in red blood cells: a case control study

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J Rheumatol. 2006 Nov;33(11):2139-45.

Association of rheumatoid arthritis with ergothioneine levels in red blood

cells: a case control study.

Taubert D, Lazar A, Grimberg G, Jung N, Rubbert A, Delank KS, Perniok A,

Erdmann E, Schomig E.

Department of Pharmacology, University Hospital of Cologne, D-50931 Cologne,

Germany. dirk.taubert@...

OBJECTIVE: The dietary thiol compound and erythrocyte ingredient

ergothioneine (ET) is the preferential physiological substrate of the

organic cation transporter OCTN1, found to be associated with rheumatoid

arthritis (RA) in genetic studies, but the biological roles of ET and OCTN1

are unclear. We investigated the association between ET concentrations in

peripheral blood erythrocytes and the occurrence of RA. METHODS: Erythrocyte

ET concentrations in patients with mildly active RA (n = 73) were compared

to ET levels in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD; n = 62) and

osteoarthritis (OA; n = 148), serving as non-RA chronic inflammatory disease

controls. Correlation of ET levels in erythrocytes with levels of ET and

OCTN1 mRNA in CD14+ monocytes was determined in 10 healthy subjects.

RESULTS: Erythrocyte ET levels were significantly higher in patients with

RA, with a median (interquartile range) of 12.6 micromole/l of erythrocytes

(IQR 8.1-18.3), compared to 7.7 (IQR 5.0-12.0; p < 0.001) in CHD and 7.8

(IQR 4.8-12.8; p < 0.001) in OA. The prevalence of RA compared to non-RA

controls increased with increasing blood ET concentrations, with an odds

ratio of 0.23 (95% CI 0.13-0.41; p < 0.001) in the lowest quartile of RA

erythrocyte ET levels to 3.11 (95% CI 1.54-6.29; p = 0.002) in the highest

quartile. The group differences in ET values were maintained after

adjustment for disease-related anthropometric and clinical variables (age,

sex, body mass index, smoking, duration of disease, hemoglobin, C-reactive

protein, and medication) and were also independent of erythrocyte

glutathione levels and of polymorphisms of the OCTN1 gene. ET levels in

erythrocytes were linearly correlated with ET concentrations (R2 = 0.936, p

< 0.001) and OCTN1 mRNA levels (R2 = 0.946, p < 0.001) in CD14+ cells.

CONCLUSION: Mildly active cases of RA are associated with an unexplained

high level of ET in red blood cells.

PMID: 17086603

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & list_uids=1\

7086603

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