@article{oai:nagasaki-u.repo.nii.ac.jp:00001505,
 author = {Kawashiri, Shin-ya and Origuchi, Tomoki and Umeda, Masataka and Nishino, Ayako and Shimizu, Toshimasa and Fukui, Shoichi and Koga, Tomohiro and Iwamoto, Naoki and Ichinose, Kunihiro and Tamai, Mami and Nakamura, Hideki and Maeda, Takahiro and Kawano, Mitsuhiro and Yamamoto, Motohisa and Izumi, Yasumori and Kawakami, Atsushi},
 issue = {1},
 journal = {Arthritis Research & Therapy},
 month = {Dec},
 note = {Background: The aim of this study was to identify fibrosis-related serological surrogate outcome measures in patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD). Methods: This was a clinical observational study of 72 patients with untreated IgG4-RD from four institutions in Japan.The serum concentrations of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15), CCL2, hyaluronic acid (HA), amino-terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (PIIINP), and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP-1) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) score was calculated from the TIMP-1, PIIINP, and HA values. We evaluated associations between the values of these biomarkers and laboratory data, the IgG4-RD responder index (IgG4-RD RI) score, and organ involvements. Results: Compared with the 44 healthy controls, the patients with IgG4-RD showed significantly elevated serum concentrations of GDF-15, MCP-1, HA, PIIINP, 
and TIMP-1 and ELF scores. The patients' serum concentrations of GDF-15, CCL2, 
HA, and TIMP-1 (but not PIIINP) were positively correlated with each other. Among them, serum GDF-15 most efficiently distinguished patients with IgG4-RD from healthy controls. Serum GDF-15 was not associated with the IgG4-RD RI score or the number of organ involvements but was independently associated with the presence of retroperitoneal fibrosis and with parotid gland involvement. Conclusions: We observed increased serological surrogate outcome measures of fibrosis in IgG4-RD. GDF-15 may precisely reflect the fibrotic degree in patients with IgG4-RD., Arthritis Research and Therapy, 20(1), art.no.277; 2018},
 title = {Association of serum levels of fibrosis-related biomarkers with disease activity in patients with IgG4-related disease},
 volume = {20},
 year = {2018}
}