Increased Frequency of Circulating Follicular Helper T Cells in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

• DOI: 10.1155/2012/827480
• Publication Date: 2012-05-10T21:03:18Z
• Authors: Jie Ma; Chenlu Zhu; Bin Ma; Jie Tian; Samuel Essien Baidoo; Chaoming Mao; Wei Wu; Jianguo Chen; Jia Tong; Min Yang; Zhijun Jiao; Huaxi Xu; Liwei Lu; Shengjun Wang
• Keywords: CXCR5

Follicular helper T (Tfh) cells are recognized as a distinct CD4 + T-cell subset, which provides for B-cell activation and production of specific antibody responses, play critical role in the development autoimmune disease. So far, only one study investigated circulating Tfh increased subset SLE patients. Since relatively little is known about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, this study, Tfh-cell frequency, related cytokine IL-21, transcription factor Bcl-6 were 53 patients with RA 31 health controls. Firstly, we found that frequency of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CD4</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CXCR5</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>ICOS</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>high</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math>Tfh was significantly peripheral blood compared healthy It directing an response by germinal centers B cells; secondly, observed accompanied level anti-CCP Furthermore, expression mRNA plasma IL-21 concentrations increased. Taken together, these findings have shown correlated elevated levels antibody, indicating possible involvement disease progression RA.