Unlike other soluble receptors, the soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R) cooperates with IL-6 to activate gp130 of effector cell. As the IL-6 and sIL-6R are important in the rheumatoid disease, this study was designed to measure concentration of IL-6 and sIL-6R in synovium and synovial fluid of the degenerative arthritis. The synovium and synovial fluid were obtained during total knee replacement arthroplasty. The synovium was taken from eleven patients, and synovial fluid taken from sixteen patients. Same patients between two groups were seven. Tissue cultures of the synovial tissues were done with 10% FBS for 72 hours. After irrigation, thery were incubated for 48 hours without FBS, and the culture media and the synovial fluid were collected after centrifuged at 2500rpm for 10 minutes. The level of IL-6 and sIL-6R were measured by quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay technique. RESULTS: In the synovium, the IL-6 level was 5.1+/-0.12ng/ml, and the sIL-6R level was 0.41+/-0.25ng/ml. In the synovial fluid, the IL-6 level was 0.09+/- 0.15ng/ml, and the sIL-6R level was 10.37+/-3.28ng/ml. These results show that IL-6 concentration was measured highly in two groups, especially in synovium (sixty times), and the sIL-6R concentration was measured significantly high in synovial fluid (twenty-five times). CONCLUSION: The IL-6 and sIL-6R were elevated in degenerative arthrits. We confirmed the source of IL-6 was synovium (very high in synovial tissue culture media), but we need further study for the source of sIL-6R as it was remarkably elevated as IL-6 and its level was lower than serum.
Arthroplasty ; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee ; Culture Media ; Humans ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Interleukin-6* ; Osteoarthritis ; Synovial Fluid ; Synovial Membrane