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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Bronchoalveolar Lavage of Murine Lungs to Analyze Inflammatory Cell Infiltration
Published on: May 4, 2017
Biased T cell receptor Vbeta gene expression in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from Japanese patients with sarcoidosis
A Yoshitomi1, A Sato, H Hayakawa
1Second Department of Internal Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
Objective:
Sarcoidosis is believed to be one of the T cell-mediated granulomatous diseases with unknown aetiology. We attempt to search for the causative T cell clones of sarcoidosis.
Methods:
We study T cell receptor beta-chain variable region (Vbeta) repertoire in peripheral blood (PB) and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from patients with sarcoidosis, using semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction method. The expression of 22 kinds of Vbeta genes is examined in 17 patients with sarcoidosis and nine normal subjects.
Results:
Compared with control subjects, the group with sarcoidosis exhibits significantly high expressions of the Vbeta2 (P < 0.005, Wilcoxon's test) and Vbeta6 (P = 0.005) genes in BALF. In each BALF sample, the Vbeta2 (P < 0.01, chi2 test) and Vbeta6 (P < 0.01) genes were overexpressed (> 2 SD above the mean value for each Vbeta observed in control subjects) in 11 and 10 of 17 patients with sarcoidosis, respectively. Furthermore, the amino acid sequences of Vbeta6+ complementarity determining region 3 were conserved in one of three patients. There is, however, no disposition of Vbeta gene usage in PB from patients with sarcoidosis compared with control subjects.
Conclusions:
The T lymphocytes with Vbeta2 and/or Vbeta6 are associated with the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis. The possibility exists that these T lymphocytes might be capable of recognizing the restricted antigens, thereby inducing oligoclonal expansion.
