γδ T cells in Behçet’s disease (BD) and recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS)

Abstract

The immunopathogenesis of BD is believed to be T cell-mediated. The objective of this study was to characterize the activation stage and cytokine profile of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), with particular emphasis on gammadelta T cells. Venous blood was collected from 20 patients with BD, and for comparison, from 11 patients with RAS and from 15 healthy controls. Both the expression of activation markers (CD25, CD29, CD40 ligand, CD69 and HLA-DR) on freshly isolated PBL and T cell subsets, and the expression of intracellular cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)) on mitogen-stimulated PBL and T cell subsets were analysed by double immunofluorescent staining and flow cytometry. Significantly decreased proportion of alphabeta T cells and increased proportion of gammadelta T cells, CD56+ cells and CD8+ gammadelta T cells were found in BD patients compared with healthy controls. This was also seen to a lesser extent in patients with RAS. Furthermore, in BD a significantly increased proportion of the gammadelta T cell population expressed CD69 and high levels of CD29 and were induced to produce IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha compared with healthy controls. In contrast, an increased percentage of gammadelta T cells from RAS patients was induced to produce IFN-gamma, but not TNF-alpha. These results indicate that in BD, activated gammadelta T cells, capable of producing IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, are present in peripheral blood, suggesting that gammadelta T cells are dynamic and may be regulating immunopathogenic events.

Efficacy of TNF blockade in cyclophosphamide resistant neuro-Behcet disease

“…Both spontaneous and lipopolysaccharide stimulated TNF a production is higher in BD than in control individuals. [5][6][7] It is not clear if the inappropriate regulation of TNF a in BD is genetically determined, although TNF promoter polymorphism has been demonstrated in some patients. 8 The central role of TNF a in the pathogenesis of BD is further supported by an increasing number of reports highlighting the efficacy of anti-TNF a agents in this disease.…”

Etiology, Immunopathogenesis and Biomarkers in Behçet’s disease

“…Increased γδ T cells levels were seen in BD patients compared to HC [99,[150][151][152][153][154][155] and in active BD compared to inactive BD [99,151,155,156]; however conversely, several studies did not show any significant difference with HC [157][158][159]. Hasan et al postulated that these discrepancies might be due to the activation status of the disease, as a reflection of local tissue inflammation compared to peripheral blood γδ T cells and such variation might be dependent on several other factors including disease severity, usage of medications such as immunomodulatory agents, and perhaps other variables, namely, age, gender, ethnicity, and/ or environmental factors [149].…”

Immunopathogenesis Based Adamantiades- Behcet Disease Vasculitis Treatment

“…Data is further supported by the fact that these cells seem to be polyclonally rather than oligoclonally activated in ABD patients with oral ulcers. Probably because of repeated inflammation of the oral mucosa, due to a wide variety of antigenic stimuli, activation and proliferation of these cells might play a role in disease clinical heterogeneity (Freysdottir, 1999.…”