Although serum GDF-15 levels were higher in patients with Behçet's syndrome in the unadjusted comparison, this difference was no longer statistically significant after adjustment for sex and BMI, limiting GDF-15's utility as a disease-specific biomarker.
Serum GDF-15 levels were significantly higher in patients with Behçet's syndrome than in healthy controls in unadjusted analysis.
After multivariable logistic regression adjusting for sex and BMI, GDF-15 was no longer an independent predictor of Behçet's syndrome.
GDF-15 levels were not associated with disease activity scores in patients with Behçet's syndrome.
No significant correlations were observed between GDF-15 levels and classical acute-phase reactants.
The study underscores the importance of recognizing negative biomarker findings to prevent overinterpretation of biomarker utility.
This research examined whether a protein called GDF-15, which is involved in inflammation and immune responses, might serve as a useful biological marker (biomarker) for Behçet's syndrome (BS), a chronic inflammatory disease affecting blood vessels throughout the body. The researchers measured GDF-15 levels in the blood of 49 BS patients and 33 healthy individuals and found that, at first glance, GDF-15 levels appeared significantly higher in BS patients. However, when the researchers accounted for differences in sex and body mass index (BMI) between the two groups, this difference disappeared entirely, suggesting the initial finding was explained by those demographic factors rather than the disease itself. The study also found that GDF-15 levels did not correlate with how active or severe the disease was in BS patients, nor did they track with standard blood markers of inflammation. This means GDF-15 does not appear useful for monitoring disease flares or gauging disease burden in Behçet's syndrome. This research suggests that GDF-15 is unlikely to be a clinically meaningful biomarker for Behçet's syndrome, and highlights a broader scientific point: when a biomarker appears elevated in a disease group, it is essential to check whether other factors—like sex or body weight—might explain the difference before concluding the biomarker is disease-related. The authors note that reporting these 'negative' results is important to prevent other researchers or clinicians from over-relying on a biomarker that does not hold up under careful analysis, and they call for longer-term studies to further investigate GDF-15's role, if any, in Behçet's syndrome.
Aydoğdu M, Kaya Z, Uçar C, Zontul S, İnanç E, Yolbaş S. (2026). Serum growth differentiation factor-15 levels in Behçet's syndrome: A cross-sectional study.. Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000050439