Investigation of serum HIF-1 alpha levels and relationship with disease activity in behçet patients

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, relapsing, systemic vasculitis of unknown aetiology with clinical features of mucocutaneous lesions, ocular, vascular, articular, gastrointestinal, urogenital, pulmonary and neurologic involvement. Infection agents, immune mechanism disorders and genetic factors have been claimed to be effective in its pathogenesis. However, the pathogenesis is not clearly known. Today, there is still no definitive cure for BD. A better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in BD's pathogenesis will enable the development of new strategies for treating the disease. Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are essential elements for controlling immune cell metabolism and function. HIF-1α is an important protein in the regulation of immunological response, hemostasis, vascularization and anaerobic metabolism. New studies reveal that HIF-1α plays an important role in autoimmune diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Psoriasis, and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD).Our aim in this study; To evaluate the serum levels of HIF-1α in Behçet's patients and to investigate the relationship of HIF-1α with disease activity. 44 patients who met the who met the criteria of the 1990 International Behçet Disease Working Group and 41 healthy volunteer who matched the patient group in terms of age and gender were included in the study. Peripheral blood samples were taken from patients. Serum HIF-1α levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). No significant difference was found in both groups in terms of the number of women and men (p = 0.898), age (p = 0.845), smoking (p = 0.898). The mean serum levels of HIF-1α in the BD and in HC group were measured as 14.63 (10.02-208.88) pg/ml and 17.21 (9.95-196.28) pg/ml respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.275). There was no significant correlation between ESR, CRP, gender, age and HIF-1α (p>0.05). There was positive correlation between WBC and serum HIF-1α levels (p=0,048). When The Behcet's Disease Current Activity Form (BDCAF) score was compared in female and male patients, the BDCAF score of female patients was significantly higher (p=0.007). There was also a positive correlation between ESH and BDCAF score (p=0,004). The role of HIF1-α in the Behçet disease needs to be clarified with more extensive and comprehensive studies.