High mobility box protein-1 may be a new biomarker in active interstitial lung disease of systemic sclerosis

Introduction: To investigate the significance of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) levels as both an immune and inflammatory mediator in systemic sclerosis (SSC) patients with interstitial lung disease (SSC-ILD) and whether HMGB1 levels could be a biomarker for progression and disease activity. Materials & methods: Our study included 27 patients diagnosed with SSC according to the 2013 ACR/EULAR classification criteria, along with 12 healthy controls (HC). Among the patients with a diagnosis of SSC, they were further categorized into two groups based on the presence of ILD with 19 patients having lung involvement and eight patients without. In ILD-positive group, the activity of the involvement was assessed using the simple Goh algorithm. Serum levels of HMGB1 were evaluated in all groups using ELISA method. Results: Significantly higher serum HMGB1 levels were found in patients with SSC-ILD active disease when compared to those with inactive ILD involvement and HC (14.01 mg/dl vs. 7.87 mg/dl and 8.04 mg/dl). Conclusions: Serum HMGB1 levels reflect the disease activity in SSC-ILD. HMGB1 could be used for a potential biomarker for detecting active lung disease.