[Effects of immunosuppressive therapy on cellular immunity status in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis]

The article presents the findings of the immunological study of 57 elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis, which had been given for a long period of time methotrexate (MT) and sulfasaline (SF). It was established that MT and SF basic therapy have led to progressive decreasing in absolute and relative quantity and an average diameter of CD4+, CD8, CD16, CD19 lymphocytes. It also resulted in lowering proliferative response of mononuclear lymphocytes (ML) to mitogens, increasing spontaneous and Fas-induced apoptosis of ML. The study revealed peculiarities of cellular immunity alterations in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis who developed infectious complication of the basic therapy. A prognostic role and critical values of the absolute and relative content of natural killers, structure and size of nucleus of natural killers and cytotoxic T-cells, spontaneous and Fas-induced apoptosis with regard to the risk of infectious complications of MT and SF therapies was established in elderly patients with RA.