A study of circulating levels of IL-17 in Egyptian patients with Behcet's disease and its association with disease manifestation.

Behcet's disease (BD) is a vascular inflammatory illness with different clinical presentations and incompletely understood mechanisms. Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is suggested to take part in BD inflammatory process but the exact role in different disease manifestation is still unclear. This case- control study aimed to investigate the correlation between IL-17 levels and the symptoms of BD. This study included 30 individuals diagnosed with BD and 15 apparently healthy volunteers, age and sex matched, as controls. Complete clinical assessment with consideration for clinical manifestations was performed. Laboratory markers for BD activity including erythrocyte sedimentation rates and C-reactive protein (CRP) were evaluated. Serum IL-17 level was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The serum IL-17 levels in patients and controls differed significantly (p < 0.001). Both the duration of BD illness and CRP showed a significant positive correlation with serum IL-17 (p= 0.048 and p < 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, compared to patients with uveitis and controls, individuals with skin manifestations had significantly greater serum IL-17 levels (p < 0.001). In conclusion, serum IL-17 in BD patients especially in those with skin manifestations had significant correlation with disease activity. These results confirm the suggested role of IL-17 in augmenting the inflammation of BD and support the treatment with anti-IL-17 specific therapy for resistant cases of BD especially cases with skin symptoms.