Presence of various autoantibodies demonstrated by autoimmune target test in the sera of patients with degenerated and herniated intervertebral disc: comment on the article by Shamji et al.

摘要

We read with interest in the article by Shamji et al (1) that the expression of interleukin-17 (IL-17), a proinflammatory cyto-kine, was significantly high in degenerated and herniated inter-vertebral disc (IVD) tissue. They state that the high expression of IL-17 suggests involvement of Th17 lymphocytes in the pathologic mechanism of disc degeneration. The most notable role of IL-17 is its involvement in the induction and mediation of proinflammatory responses. Additionally, IL-17 has been linked to many immune- and autoimmune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, lupus, allograft rejection, and antitumor immunity (2). We believe the expression of IL-17 in disc tissue of patients with disc degeneration and/or herniation is related to the autoimmune process, and have been investigating the connection between diseases and autoimmunity, through which we found a relationship between autoimmunity and degenerated and herniated IVD.