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Immune Responses to 6 and 30‐kDa Mycobacterial Antigens in Rheumatoid Patients, and Vβ Usage by Specific Synovial T‐Cell Lines and Fresh T Cells
Author(s) -
SIOUD M.,
KJELDSENKRAGH J.,
QUAYLE A. J,
WTKER H. G,
SØRSKAAR D.,
NATVIG J. B.,
FØRRE Ø.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1991.tb01605.x
Subject(s) - antigen , juvenile rheumatoid arthritis , immune system , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , immunology , medicine , synovial fluid , antibody , t cell , rheumatoid arthritis , synovial membrane , epitope , arthritis , biology , pathology , in vitro , osteoarthritis , alternative medicine , biochemistry
We have investigated both the humoral and the cellular immune responses of patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to mycobacterial antigens. The JRA group was not Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccinated whilst the majority of the RA group was. As determined by immunoblotting, 79% of sera from patients with JRA reacted mainly with a 18.6‐kDa protein (P 18,6 ), whilst 70% of sera from patients with RA reacted mainly with a 30‐kDa protein (P 30 ) of BCG, M. tuberculosis and M, kansasii. In contrast, only a moderate proportion of the control sera (25% of adult and 20% of children) showed reactivity to P 30 , and none of the samples had significant reactivity with the P 18,6 antigen. Furthermore, T‐cell proliferation to the P 18,6 and P 30 antigens was detected in the majority of JRA and RA patients, and was nearly always higher in synovial fluid (SF) than in the peripheral blood (PB). We also investigated the usage of V vβ family genes in P 18,6 , and P 30 antigen‐specific T‐cell lines established from the SF of one patient with active RA, We showed that Vβ‐2‐4,‐5,‐6,‐7,‐14,‐17,‐18 and V β19 were over‐represented compared with other known V β families. We also noted that the proportion of V β14 was higher in freshly isolated SF mononuclear cells compared with the blood in this patient and in 2 out of 4 other RA patients examined. Other V β families such as V β6 . V β8 V β16 V β18 and V β19 were also over‐represented in the SF compared with the blood in some patients. Taken together our results provide more information concerning the role of mycobacterial antigens in RA and suggest that there may be an in vivo clonal expansion of T lymphocytes in the synovium.