IL-37 is associated with osteoarthritis disease activity and suppresses proinflammatory cytokines production in synovial cells

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between IL-37 level and osteoarthritis activity and to determine the anti-inflammatory effects of IL-37 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and synovial cells (SCs) from osteoarthritis (OA) patients, which including 32 patients with erosive inflammatory OA (EIOA) and 40 patients with primary generalized OA (PGOA), 40 age and sex matched healthy volunteers were recruited as healthy controls (HCs). The protein and relative mRNA levels of IL-37 were significant increased in the blood of EIOA patients compared with those of PGOA patients and HCs. Serum IL-37 levels of OA patients were positively correlated with VAS score, as well as with CRP, ESR in blood. Positive correlations were also observed among IL-37 with IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6 in synovial cells. Furthermore, the expression of IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6 in PBMCs and SCs from EIOA patients was suppressed by IL-37 in vitro. In conclusion, our results indicated that IL-37 increased in EIOA patients and was positively correlated with disease activity, the pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6 in PBMCs and synovial cells from EIOA patients were restrained by recombinant IL-37. Thus, IL-37 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of OA inflammation.