Effects of β-ifn-lb treatment in ms patients on adhesion between pbmncs andhuvecs

β-IFN-lb is a cytokine recently approved for treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients with relapsing-remitting course and low disability. It has been shown, in clinical and in vitro studies, that β-IFN-lb is able to reduce the number of relapses, to decrease the development of new lesions at MRI and to antagonize some of γ-IFN effects, probably involved in MS pathogenesis. Nevertheless, in spite of its comparatively large clinical use, the mechanism(s) of action of β-IFN in MS is still poorly understood. The in vivo effects on the adhesion between PBMNCs and HUVECs were investigated at the beginning (TO) of β-IFN-lb treatment of 10 MS patients, 48 hours later (T2) and after 6 months (T180). sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 dosage in the serum of the patients was checked as well. No significant effects on mononuclear cells/endothelium adhesion were detected at T2, while at T180 the adhesion was significantly reduced. While the serum level of si CAM-1 did not show any fluctuation, sVCAM-1 was increased at T2 and was still higher at T180, suggesting that β-IFN could induce shedding of VCAM-1 from activated endothelia. This is of importance, since the increase of the concentration of soluble adhesion molecules might have a buffering effect on the corresponding counter-receptors on mononuclear cells.