Expression and clinical significance of autophagy-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of systemic sclerosis

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of autophagy-related genes LC-3 mRNA, Beclin-1 mRNA, Agt-3 mRNA, Agt-5 mRNA, Agt-12 mRNA and Agt-16 L1 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cell(PBMC) of systemic sclerosis(SSc). Methods Twenty-nine cases of SSc and 29 cases of normal control were received from the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, and autophagy-related genes were detected by RT-PCR. SPSS 19.0 statistical software was used to compare the expression of autophagy-related genes between groups and analyze the relationship between autophagy-related genes and clinical data, P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results (1)LC-3, Beclin-1, and Agt-3 were highly expressed in SSc compared with normal control [LC-3:0.77(0.51,1.00)×10^-3 vs. 0.46(0.37,0.63)×10^-3; Beclin-1: 6.13(5.01,7.88) ×10^-3 vs. 4.76(3.43,5.34)×10^-3;Agt-3:15.67(11.52,23.66)×10^-3 vs. 8.65(7.44,11.23)×10^-3], however Agt-5, Agt-12 and Agt-16 L1 of autophagy-related genes were not statistically significant.(2)LC-3 high expressed in SSc with the positive of anti-nucleosome antibody and the positive of anti-SSA/Ro antibody.(3)LC-3 was positively correlated with Age and ESR, and the values of r were 0.662, 0.428(all P<0.05). Conclusion Autophagy-related genes were increased in PBMC of SSc, and were correlated with age, ESR and autoantibody, suggested that autophagy is a key feature in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis.