Soluble CD40 ligand, high sensitive C-reactive protein and fetuin-A levels in patients with essential thrombocythemia

BackgroundCD40 ligand (CD40L) is expressed on the surface of activated platelets and activated T lymphocytes. Circulating soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) is formed from these molecules proteolytically. Fetuin-A is a potent antiinflammatory cytokine.Aim of the studyIn this study, we aim to investigate sCD40L levels to determine whether there is platelet activation and to measure high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels to demonstrate if this leads to an inflammatory process and also to study fetuin-A levels to see if there is any concomitant antiinflammatory event in patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET).MethodsWe compared 30 patients with essential thrombocythemia with 30 control subjects and in these patients we measured levels of sCD40L, hs-CRP and fetuin-A.ResultssCD40L levels were significantly higher in the ET group compared to the control group (30.6 ± 14.4 vs. 18.5 ± 8.9, p = 0.001). Although fetuin-A levels showed a slight trend to be increased in ET patients, the difference did not reach significance (4.5 ± 4.2 vs. 3.2 ± 2.1, p = 0.158). There were no statistically significant differences in hs-CRP levels (24.6 ± 4.9 vs. 25.0 ± 5.2, p = 0.750).ConclusionsCD40L was significantly higher in patients with an ET without any association with an inflammatory process and we believe this may be a marker of platelet regeneration.