CD20dim T Cell Expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Lee, Jong Wook; Lee, Jung Woon; Kim, Hyon Suk; Kwon, Oh Hun; Lee, Soo Kon

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to investigate CD20dim expression on T cells between healthy control subjects and rheumatoid arthritis patients and to investigate the association between CD20dim T cells and clinical manifestations in rheumatoid arthritis.
METHODS
Peripheral bloods from twenty seven healthy controls and twenty six rheumatoid patients were evaluated by dual color immunophenotyping. We used IgGla and IgG2a for negative control, then, divided T cells and B cells on CD3/CD19 combination. And we evaluated two subpopulation CD5+CD20dim T cell (CD20dim T cell) and CD5+CD20bright cell(CD5 B cell) on CD5/20 combination for comparison. In order to correlate the CD20dim T cell datas with patient's clinical status, patients charateristcs such as age, disease duration, morning stiffness, rheumatoid factor(RF), and antinuclear antibody(ANA) were reviewed.
RESULTS
The mean percent positivity of T cells(CD3) and B cells(CD19) in 27 healthy control donors was 63.2+/-7.7%, and 11.4+/-2.6 %. The mean percentages of CD20dim T cell and CD5 B cell(Leul) were 2.3+/-1.0% and 1.4+/-0.9% and upper limit of reference values of CD20dim T cells and CD5 B cells(Leul) that calculated from normal healthy controls were 4.3%0 and 3. 2 %. Compared with healthy controls, CD20dim T cells were significantly elevated in total patient groups(4.4+/-2.7%, p(0.01). and significantly increased more than upper limit of reference values in eleven of 26 patients. Compared with CD20dim T cells according to disease duration, disease duration of most patients(10/11) with elevated CD20dim T cell were less than 2 years.
CONCLUSION
The results indicated that CD20dim T cells were expressed at low levels in healthy controls but elevated levels of CD20dim T cells in rheumatoid arthritis patients were observed and close relationship to CD20dim T cells expression and disease duration was noted.