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Altered T-cell subtypes in spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica

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Abstract

The objective of the present study was to assess the prevalences of naive, memory, memory/effector, regulatory and activated T-cells in peripheral blood (PB) and synovial fluid (SF) of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), polymyalgia rheumatica/giant cell arteritis (PMR/GCA) and healthy controls (HC). Twenty-two patients with SpA, 15 patients with RA, 38 patients with PMR/GCA and 17 HC were prospectively enrolled. The expression of differentiation and activation markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25, CD28, CD45RA, CD45RO) characterizing T-cell subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. The frequency of CD3+CD4+CD28− memory/effector T-cells was increased in PB of patients with SpA (median 1.1%, range 0.1–69.6), RA (2.5%, 0–42.9) and PMR/GCA (2.7%, 0–49.5) when compared with HC (0.7%, 0–38.0) and tended to be higher in SF of SpA patients (4.5%, 0.2–7.2, P = 0.084). CD28+CD45RA+CD4+ (9.6%, 4.1–10.3) and CD28+CD45RA+CD8+ naive T-cells (15.0%, 12.9–26.2) were reduced and CD28+CD45RO+CD4+ (93.5%, 51.0–99.0), CD28+CD45RO+CD8+ memory (81.2%, 38.9–83.5), CD8+CD25+ activated T-cells (10.9%, 2.7–13.8) and CD4+CD25hi TREGs (10.2%, 7.0–13.3) were increased in SF compared to PB (P < 0.05 each). These findings demonstrate altered T-cell subsets in patients with immune-mediated disease, particularly at sites of inflammation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Innsbruck Medical University, the “Verein zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Ausbildung und Tätigkeit von Südtirolern an der Universität Innsbruck” (to C. Dejaco) and the Tyrolean Research Funds (to C. Duftner).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Clinical Department of Internal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Christian Dejaco, Christina Duftner & Michael Schirmer

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of the Elisabethinen, Voelkermarkterstrasse 15-19, 9020, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Christian Dejaco, Christina Duftner & Michael Schirmer

  3. Clinical Department of Radiology II, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Andrea Klauser

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  1. Christian Dejaco
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Correspondence to Christian Dejaco.

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296_2009_949_MOESM1_ESM.ppt

Exemplary fluorescence analysis of PB mononuclear cells stained with CD4 and CD25 mAbs for the analysis of CD4+CD25hi TREGs (according to reference 16). (A). Gates are set in the dot blot for CD4− (R1) and CD4+ (R2) T-cells. (B) Histograms are used to set the upper limit of CD25− T-cells according to the isotype control (filledblacksquare, *) and the upper limit of the CD25int T-cells according to the CD4−CD25+ cells (filledblackrectangle, +). Thus CD4+CD25int T-cells (including the activated CD4+ T-cells) and the CD4+CD25hi T-cells (representing the TREGs) can be differentiated. The gray area under the curve shows the distribution of CD25-expression on CD4+ T-cells (out of area R2), including the CD4+CD25hi TREGs. (C) Density blots show the different compartments after appropriate gating for CD4−CD25−and CD4−CD25int cells (out of the R1 area), and CD4+CD25−, CD4+CD25int and CD4+CD25hi cells (out of the R2 area). No cells can be detected in the CD4−CD25hi gate

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Dejaco, C., Duftner, C., Klauser, A. et al. Altered T-cell subtypes in spondyloarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. Rheumatol Int 30, 297–303 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-009-0949-9

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