Reporters of TCR signaling identify arthritogenic T cells in murine and human autoimmune arthritis

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1904271116
• Publication Date: 2019-08-27T21:05:43Z
• Authors: Judith F. Ashouri; Lih-Yun Hsu; Steven Yu; Dmitry Rychkov; Yiling Chen; Debra A. Cheng; Marina Sirota; Erik Hansen; Lisa Lattanza; Julie Zikherman; Arthur Weiss
• Keywords: Ex vivo

Significance How arthritis-causing T cells trigger rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not understood since it difficult to differentiate activated by inflammation in arthritic joints from those through their cell antigen receptor (TCR) self-antigens. We developed a model identify and study antigen-specific responses arthritis. Nur77—a specific marker of TCR signaling—was used antigen-activated the SKG patients with RA. Nur77 could distinguish highly arthritogenic autoreactive mice. The enhanced autoreactivity was associated increased interleukin-6 (IL-6) signaling, likely contributing arthritogenicity. These data highlight functional correlate between expression, populations, heightened IL-6 sensitivity mice translatable implications for human