Although the precise pathogenesis of the Behçet's disease is not yet undertween the severity of Behçet's disease and the serum cytokine level. development of cytokine research has made it possible to find out if there is an association between the severity of Behçet's syndrome and the serum cytokine level.

Our purpose was to elucidate whether the immunopathological mechanism is associated with the serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1β (I1,1β) which are predominantly produced by monocytes/macrophages, and mterleukm-6 (IL-6).

Sixty seven patients of Behçet's disease and ten healthy adults as a control group were studied. Serum TNF and IL-6 levels were detected by enzyme immunoassay and serum IL-lβ levels by radioimmunoassay.

There were no statistically significant differences in the serum levels of TNF, IL-1β, TL-6 compared with the control group.

These data suggest that the immunopathological reactions of the Behçet's disease are not associated with a monocyte/macrophage dependent mechanism, possibly due to other immunocompetent cells.