Background: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Results: There was a significant increase in RF, ACPA, CRP, proinflammatory cytokines, and HBD-3 in the RA group compared with the HS group. There was no significant difference in HBD-3 levels according to the activity of diseases. The results of the correlation between HBD-3 and proinflammatory cytokines showed a significant positive relationship in the RA group. Conclusions: Inflammatory markers and S.HBD-3 demonstrated fair diagnostic performance to differentiate RA from HS. The current study supports the hypothesis that there is a correlation between HBD-3 and the immunoregulatory response.
