The anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibody as a potential predictor for rheumatoid arthritis associated interstitial lung diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long lasting autoimmune disorder which is characterized by symmetric arthritis and synovial inflammation. RA associated Interstitial lung diseases (RA-ILD) are common extra-articular manifestations of RA which occurs in between 4 to 50% of the RA patients. However, exact biomarker for predicting the development of RA-ILD is still unclear. In this study, the anti-MCV antibody, anti-CCP antibody, anti-AKA antibody and anti-AFP antibody as well as different Ig forms of rheumatoid factor were systematically evaluated between RA-ILD and RA patients for the correlation of between the RA associated autoantibodies and ILD. Our data demonstrated that the anti-MCP antibodies titer in RA-ILD patients were significantly higher that RA patients without ILD. However, no significant difference was observed for anti-CCP antibodies between two groups. In conclusion, our study suggested that existence of anti-MCV antibodies as well as its level could be a potential predictor for RA-ILD.