Serum levels of interleukins and S100A8/A9 correlate with clinical severity in patients with dermatomyositis-associated interstitial lung disease

Background Dermatomyositis (DM) is a systemic autoimmune inflammatory disorder that affects primarily skin, muscle and lung, frequently associated with interstitial lung disease (ILD). The objective of this study is to investigate the association between serum cytokines and clinical severity in patients with DM-ILD. Methods Serum samples of 30 healthy controls, 14 DM patients without ILD and 40 DM patients with ILD were collected. Serum S100A8/A9 levels were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and levels of interleukins were measured by cytometric beads array (CBA). Then we performed multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine factors independently associated with ILD development. Results Serum IL-4, IL-6 and S100A8/A9 levels were significantly higher in DM patients with ILD than those in healthy controls (p = 0.0013, 0.0017 and p = 0.0001). In DM patients, the levels were significantly higher in patients with A/SIP than in those with CIP (p = 0.0046, 0.0339 and 0.0133) or without ILD (p = 0.0165, 0.0370 and r = 0.1171, p = 0.0040), IL-6 (r = 0.1174, p = 0.0040) and IL-10 (r = − 0.1829, p = 0.0003) were significantly correlated with S100A8/A9 in DM-ILD patients. S100A8/A9 was significantly correlated with high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) (r = 0.1642, p = 0.0157) and lung function (DLCO%: r = − 0.2066, p = 0.0061, FVC%: r = − 0.2156, p = 0.0050). Moreover, logistic regression analysis revealed that S100A8/A9 levels were independently associated with ILD development in DM patients (p = 0.004). Conclusions Serum level of S100A8/A9 may be a valuable predictor for assessing the clinical severity of DM-ILD patients. Serum IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 levels were highly correlated with S100A8/A9, so these cytokines may play a synergistic effect on the progression of DM-ILD.