CD4⁺, CD8⁺, and CD4⁻ CD8⁻ T Cells in CSF and Blood of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Tension Headache

Abstract

Two-colour flow cytometric analysis was performed on paired samples of peripheral blood (PB) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with untreated multiple sclerosis (MS) and, for reference, subjects with muscular tension headache (TH) using anti-CD3, anti-CD4, anti-CD8, and anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibodies in different combinations. CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratio was increased in CSF compared to PB in both MS patients and TH subjects to a similar extent. This was mainly due to higher CD4+ T-cell levels in the CSF compartment. The proportion of HLA-DR+ T cells was higher in CSF than PB in both MS and TH; this increase of DR+ T cells in CSF was more prominent in MS. The level of CD4+ CD8+ T cells, which represent a subset of activated T cells, was not different between CSF and PB, either in MS or in TH. The proportion of CD4- CD8- T cells, which were found generally not to be blast cells, was lower in CSF compared to PB in both patient groups. However, their CSF level was higher and their PB level lower in MS compared to TH. Results point to an accumulation of activated T-helper cells in the CSF of both MS patients and healthy subjects. Fetal-type CD4- CD8- T cells bearing the unusual T-cell receptor gamma/delta seem to be selectively recruited to the CSF of MS patients.

Reduced T helper and B lymphocytes in Parkinson's disease

“…It should be noted that the comparison group in the Fiszer et al (1994a) study were people suffering from tension headache with some evidence that such patients may have peripheral blood cell abnormalities similar to multiple sclerosis (Mix et al, 1990). In agreement with Fiszer et al, our study found a 6% increase in the proportion of remaining CD4+CD45RO+ cells, however we did find a greater 19% decrease in the numbers of this cell population compared to a normal control group.…”

Role of the innate immune system in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis

“…They can either aggravate EAE (Odyniec et al, 2004; Olive, 1995; Rajan et al, 1996; Rajan et al, 1998; Spahn et al, 1999), or show a protective effect (Kobayashi et al, 1997; Ponomarev and Dittel, 2005; Ponomarev et al, 2004), or may show no effect on disease (Matsumoto et al, 1998). In MS patients, several groups have reported an increase in gamma-delta T cells in the CSF (Mix et al, 1990; Shimonkevitz et al, 1993), which correlates with their increased number in peripheral blood (Stinissen et al, 1995). Importantly, the increased number of gamma-delta T cells was identified in a group of MS patients with high MRI activity (Rinaldi et al, 2006).…”

IL-17 producing T cells in mouse models of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis

“…In MS, several groups have reported enriched γδ T cell numbers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and MS lesions [95,96]; however, evidence for a contribution of IL-17 producing γδ T cells to MS pathology is still elusive.…”