• Alberto Bergamini, Francesca Bolacchi, Caterina Delfina Pesce, Giada Veneziano, Luigi Uccioli, Valentina Girardi, Laura De Corato, Maria Teresa Mondillo, and Ettore Squillaci.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Unit, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy Department of Public Health and Cellular Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
• Int J Med Sci. 2016 Jan 1; 13 (11): 875-880.

AbstractIntroduction. The receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB (RANK), ligand (RANK-L) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) are implicated in the pathogenesis of acute Charcot neuroarthropathy (CN). Materials and Methods. This study aimed to investigate the expression of RANK-L and OPG in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with acute CN. Results. We found that the expression of RANK-L was lower in patients with acute CN as compared with diabetic control subjects and healthy control participants; whereas OPG expression was not detected in patients and in both control groups. RANK-L expression at the onset of disease was inversely correlated with the index of polyunsaturation (PUI), a bone marrow MRS-derived measurable index that allows evaluation of disease activity in acute CN, and recovery time. Finally, the expression of RANK-L increased at the time of healing compared with the values found during the acute phase. Conclusions. In conclusion, our preliminary data provide a first step in applying analysis of RANK-L expression in peripheral blood cells to the diagnosis of acute CN. Based on our data we also suggest that analysis of RANK-L expression could be a complementary tool that can be employed to obtain quantitative parameters that may help clinicians to monitor disease activity in patients with acute CN.

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