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T lymphocytes in the synovial fluid of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis display CD134-OX40 surface antigen
R Giacomelli1, A Passacantando, R Perricone
1Clinica Medica, Department of Internal Medicine, University of L'Aquila, via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy. giacomel@cc.univaq.it
Objective:
To assess the percentage of T lymphocytes, bearing CD134, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily, primarily found on autoreactive CD4+ T cells in the peripheral blood (PB) and synovial fluid (SF) of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
Methods:
The surface expression of CD134 on SF and PB mononuclear cells was performed by flow cytometry in 25 RA patients and correlated to the disease activity.
Results:
CD134 expression on CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD25+ cells was higher in SF than in PB of RA patients (P < 0.001). No differences were observed in the percentage of CD134+/CD4+ T lymphocytes in the PB of RA patients and controls. Patients with active RA had significantly higher percentage of CD3+/CD134+, CD4+/CD 134+, CD8+/CD134+ and CD25+/CD 134+ than those with inactive disease.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest that CD134+ T cells are involved in the immunopathological process of RA synovitis, maybe mirroring some other autoimmune disease in which autoreactive T cell infiltrating the target tissues largely coexpress CD134.