Comparison of cytokine profiles between anti-ARS antibody-positive interstitial lung diseases and those with anti-MDA-5 antibodies

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a significant cause of mortality among patients with dermatomyositis (DM) or polymyositis (PM). There are two subtypes of PM and DM often complicated with ILD: those with anti-aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (anti-ARS) antibodies and those with anti-MDA-5-associated amyopathic DM (ADM). Our aim is to clarify the inflammatory and immunological differences between the disorders. We retrospectively collected consecutive patients with anti-ARS-ILD and those with anti-MDA-5 antibody-positive ADM-ILD. The serum concentration of 38 cytokines was measured using a cytokine panel. The relative risks for anti-MDA-5 antibody-positive ADM-ILD were examined with univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was calculated between cytokine levels and clinical parameters in the disease. Levels of cytokines were compared between anti-ARS-ILD and anti-MDA-5-positive ADM-ILD patients (alive or dead) using Dunnett’s test. Twenty-three patients with anti-ARS-ILD and the same number of patients with anti-MDA-5-positive ADM-ILD were enrolled. The anti-MDA-5 group had poor survival (p = 0.025). Univariate logistic regression models showed that eotaxin, IL-10, IP-10, and MCP-1 were associated with the diagnosis of anti-MDA-5-positive ADM-ILD. Multivariate logistic regression models revealed that IP-10 was the most significantly associated (p = 0.001). Relationship analyses showed that IL-10 had significant positive correlations with CK (r = 0.5267, p = 0.009) and ferritin (r = 0.4528, p = 0.045). A comparison of the cytokine levels found that IP-10 was elevated in both patients who were alive and patients who had died with ADM-ILD compared with the levels in those with ARS-ILD (p = 0.003 and p = 0.001, respectively). Anti-MDA-5-positive ADM-ILD had poorer survival than anti-ARS-ILD. IP-10 seems to be most deeply involved in the pathophysiology of anti-MDA-5-associated ADM-ILD.