ABSTRACT

Background:

The etiology and pathogenesis of Behçet’s Disease (BD) remain unknown. The primary aim of this study was to determine the relation between humoral immunity and BD. We especially evaluated humoral immunity in Behçet’s patients with mucocutaneous involvement.

Material and Methods:

The study population comprised of 50 patients with BD and 53 healthy controls. Plasma IgE, IgG, IgM, IgA, C-reactive protein (C-RP), anti-streptolysin O titers (ASO), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were measured for patients and control group.

Results:

The mean ASO, C-RP and ESR levels were significantly higher in Behçet’s patients than in control subjects. The mean IgA level in BD was significantly higher than in control subjects (268 ± 16.5 mg/dl vs 172,9 ± 16 mg/dl respectively p<0.001). The IgG and IgM levels were also significantly higher than that of control subject. There was no significant IgE level difference in study groups.

Conclusion:

We have shown that humoral immune response has a role in patients with BD being highest in IgA, and being mild in Ig G and IgM levels. We thought that the high significance relation with IgA level in groups may be due to our patients clinical presentations because all of them had mucocuteneous involvement.