There are important interactions between nervous system and rheu­matic diseases. CGRP plays an im­portant role in neural regulation of in­flammatory synovial cell functions. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), degrading cartilage releases increased amounts of GAGs.
In this study the blood and synovial fluid (S.F.) concentrations of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) were measured in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (R.A.). Signif­icantly higher levels of CGRP and GAGs in S.F. were found when compared to the controls. However, plasma CGRP and serum GAGs showed no significant difference
between R.A. and controls. A positive correlation was found between S.F. levels of CGRP and GAGs. Our re­sults suggested that S.F. levels of CGRP and GAGs can be used as a specific battery of markers for R.A in­flammatory processes and cartilage degradation.
INTRODUCTION
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory dis­ease predominantly affecting the peri­pheral joints (Hermann et at., 1998). It is now well established that proinflam-matory cytokines such as tumor nec­rosis factor a ((TNF-a) and interleu-kin-1 (IL-1) are involved in the inflammatory process leading to de­struction of cartilage and bone and, eventually, to disability