Abstract
BACKGROUND: Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) is a systemic small vessel vasculitis that is mainly caused by IgA1-type immune complex deposition. Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) are specific markers of protein oxidation. OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of AOPPs in the pathogenesis of HSP. METHODS: There are 51 HSP patients who were divided into four subgroups: (i) skin type - 20 cases; (ii) joint type - 8 cases; (iii) abdominal type - 12 cases; (iv) renal type - 11 cases; and 18 healthy volunteers were enrolled as controls. The serum levels of AOPPs and Gd-IgA1 were quantified by an HAA-lectin-based ELISA. The Cosmc mRNA expression in peripheral B lymphocytes was measured by RT-PCR. RESULTS: 1. Advanced oxidation protein products in different subgroups of HSP patients are all higher than the controls, while the renal-type subgroup is the highest and the skin-type subgroup is the lowest. 2. Spearman correlation analysis shows that: (i) AOPPs and Gd-IgA1 in HSP patients are positively correlated; both of them are positively correlated with the disease severity scores; (ii) AOPPs are negatively correlated with the relative expression value (RQ) of Cosmc mRNA. CONCLUSION: Advanced oxidation protein products play an important role in the pathogenesis of HSP, especially in renal-type patients.