Serum estrogen and interleukin-6 levels in postmenopausal female osteoarthritis patients.

The objective of the present study is to determine whether the levels of endogenous estrogen and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are associated with osteoarthritis (OA) in postmenopausal women. Forty-three patients who were suffering from osteoarthritis were studied and twenty control normal subjects having no symptoms of osteoarthritis disease, were also included in the study. The estrogen hormone and interleukin-6 were measured in the serum by Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay technique. Interleukin-6 and estrogen both were detected in serum. In osteoarthritis patients IL-6 levels were high as compared to control subjects (P<0.001) and estrogen levels in OA postmenopausal females was decreased significantly (p<0.01) when compared with control subjects. There was a minimal inverse correlation between IL-6 and estrogen (P<0.05) in the sera of postmenopausal osteoarthritic women. These results indicate that estrogen deficiency after menopause may cause alterations of IL-6 in postmenopausal osteoarthritic patients.