Correlation between the Phenotype and the Functional Capacity of Activated T Cells in Patients with Active Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract

Activated T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were determined using monoclonal antibodies against activation antigens. Elevated percentages of HLA-DR+ T cells were found in association with active disease. In contrast, we observed an increase in IL-2 receptor-bearing T cells in only six out of 16 patients with active disease. In vitro assays, like spontaneous proliferation, response to IL-2, production of IL-2, and immunoglobulin synthesis have shown that the different patterns of activation antigens are related to different functional stages of T-cell activation. The possible therapeutic consequences are discussed.

Severe Impairment of Regulatory T-Cells and Th1-Lymphocyte Polarization in Patients with Gaucher Disease

“…This was rather unexpected, since TH1 polarization should lead to HLA-DR+ phenotype of T cells (Volk et al 1986). A possible explanation might be that almost all studied patients were under ERT, which could have resulted in downregulation of the HLA-DR expression, as this has been reported, following treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions (Wilson et al 1994;Bass et al 1992).…”

Up-regulated expression of Fas antigen (CD95) by peripheral naive and memory T cell subsets in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): a possible mechanism for lymphopenia

“…Actually, there was no significant difference in the ratio of naive to memory cells in each T cell subpopulation among the three groups in our study (data not shown). Deficient IL-2 production [23] and increased expression of activation antigens such as CD25 [24] and MHC class II [25,26] were noted with peripheral blood T cells from SLE patients. Taken together with the inducibility of Fas antigen after in vitro mitogenic stimulation of naive T cells [II], the up-regulation of Fas antigen observed in this study might reflect in vivo T cell activation processes.…”

Systemic lupus erythematosus of childhood onset: correlation between T cells expressing early and late activation antigens and disease activity

“…Sugawara et al [18] also found that, during a follow-up observation of an infant with neonatal lupus erythematosus, a percentage of HLA-DR positive CD8 cells was increased at the time of development of SLE at the age of 22 months, compared with the studies prior to the development of SLE and that the proportions of HLA-DR positive CD8 subset decreased with therapy. Additionally, in vitro studies showed that high percentages of HLA-DR positive T cells were associated with elevated spontaneous immunoglobulin secretion in patients with SLE [21]. In vivo animal studies also revealed that anti-HLA-DR antibody was effective in the treatment of mice with a disease similar to human SLE [2].…”

“…There have been reports suggesting a possible involvement of HLA-DR positive T cells in the pathogenesis of active SLE. A significant correlation was found between the percentage of HLA-DR positive T cells and clinical activity in adult SLE and other autoimmune disease [12,14,16,21]. Sugawara et al [18] also found that, during a follow-up observation of an infant with neonatal lupus erythematosus, a percentage of HLA-DR positive CD8 cells was increased at the time of development of SLE at the age of 22 months, compared with the studies prior to the development of SLE and that the proportions of HLA-DR positive CD8 subset decreased with therapy.…”

“…Among such activation antigens, EA1 can be a marker of very early T cell activation since it appears much earlier than IL-2 receptor and transferrin receptor upon in vitro activation [7]. HLA-DR, one of the late activation antigens, is known to play an important role in immunoregulation [21].…”