title: Phenotypic characterization of 3H-thymidine incorporating cells in rheumatoid arthritis synovial membrane.
abstract: Tritiated-thymidine incorporating cells in synovial tissue samples from ten patients with definite or classic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were studied by combining two techniques. Tritiated-thymidine-labelled cells were seen in autoradiography and simultaneously the subtype of them was determined with immunoperoxidase staining using monoclonal antibodies. Tritiated-thymidine-labelled cells comprised 0.8 +/- 0.4% of all the inflammatory cells in RA synovial membrane. Of all 3H-thymidine-labelled cells 34 +/- 17% were positive for OKT8 and 19 +/- 8% for OKT4 monoclonal antibodies. OKM1-positive cells comprised 7 +/- 3% of all 3H-thymidine labelled cells, whereas only a few (3 +/- 4%) of them were positive for pan-B monoclonal antibody. This study emphasizes the importance of activated OKT8 lymphocytes in RA synovial membrane.
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D001345:Autoradiography; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D009000:Monocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D013583:Synovial Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D013936:Thymidine / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D013936:Thymidine