RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Association of reduced CD4 T cell responses specific to varicella zoster virus with high incidence of herpes zoster in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP 2151
OP 2155
VO 31
IS 11
A1 Park, Hyung-Bae
A1 Kim, Ki-Chan
A1 Park, Jae-Hong
A1 Kang, Tae-Young
A1 Lee, Hye-Soon
A1 Kim, Tae-Hwan
A1 Jun, Jae-Bum
A1 Bae, Sang-Cheol
A1 Yoo, Dae-Hyun
A1 Craft, Joe
A1 Jung, Sungsoo
YR 2004
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/31/11/2151.abstract
AB OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the high incidence of herpes zoster in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with the frequency of memory T cells specific to varicella zoster virus (VZV). METHODS: Whole blood samples from 47 subjects [24 patients with SLE, 11 with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a disease control, and 12 healthy negative controls] were stimulated with VZV antigen, stained for surface CD4 and CD8 and intracellularly stained for the cytokines interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 4 (IL-4), and IL-10, followed by flow cytometry analyses. Correlations of VZV-specific T cell frequencies with the clinical status of patients were analyzed. RESULTS: Percentage of IFN-gamma-positive CD4 T cells was significantly lower in patients with SLE (0.043 +/- 0.009%) than in RA (0.102 +/- 0.019%) and healthy controls (0.126 +/- 0.025%) upon VZV stimulation. A similar pattern was seen in TNF-alpha-positive CD4 T cell responses. These low frequencies of VZV-specific CD4 T cells in patients with SLE were significantly related with disease activity (r = -0.435, p = 0.043). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the high incidence of herpes zoster in patients with SLE was related to the intrinsic defects in controlling VZV reactivation, and thus VZV-specific CD4 T cell frequency could be another practical risk factor of herpes zoster in patients with SLE.