Original paper
Serum soluble Fas levels in patients with systemic sclerosis

Introduction : Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterised by a chronic inflammatory process of autoimmune basis. The research conducted for the last few years shows that one of the causes of excessive lymphocyte activation can be disorders of the apoptotic process. Soluble Fas (sFas) is a protein which plays an important role in the regulation of the apoptosis receptor pathway.
Material and methods : The study included a group of 40 women between 34 and 79 years old, with diagnosed systemic sclerosis. The analysis comprised clinical subtype, duration, activity of pathological process, degree and extent of skin involvement, microvascular damage, presence of changes in lung, oesophagus and heart, level of complement C3 as well as antinuclear antibodies and applied immunosuppressive treatment. The control group included 29 healthy women, matched for age.
Results and conclusions : In our research we found significantly higher concentration of sFas protein in serum of patients suffering from systemic scleroderma in comparison with the healthy control group. There were no significant differences in the levels of sFas depending on examined systemic scleroderma clinical manifestations. The obtained result seems to be an important prevention indicator of T lymphocyte apoptosis induction in systemic sclerosis, at the same time leading to their increased proliferation.