Klebsiella pneumoniae-reactive T cells in blood and synovial fluid of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Comparison with HLA-B27+ healthy control subjects in a limiting dilution study and determination of the specificity of synovial fluid T cell clones.
OBJECTIVE
To study the frequency of Klebsiella pneumoniae-responsive T cells in the peripheral blood (PB) of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients compared with that in healthy HLA-B27+ donors, and to examine T lymphocyte clones (TLC) derived from AS patient synovial fluid (SF) for the presence of Klebsiella reactivity.


METHODS
Limiting dilution analysis of PB T cells in 8 patients with active AS and in 8 HLA-B27+ healthy subjects was used to determine the frequency of PB T cells responsive to K pneumoniae and Escherichia coli GroEL. SF T cells from a patient with active AS were cloned, and 125 TLC were characterized in proliferation assays.


RESULTS
There were fewer T cells in the PB of AS patients that reacted with K pneumoniae than in the PB of healthy HLA-B27+ subjects. The frequencies of E coli GroEL-responsive T cells were approximately 5-10 times lower in all subjects tested (healthy donors and AS patients), but without significant differences between the 2 groups. Two CD4+ TLC that recognized K pneumoniae (1 cross-reactive with E coli) as well as 3 TLC that recognized GroEL (2 CD4+, 1 T cell receptor gamma/delta+) were isolated from the SF of a patient with actige AS.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that there is a quantitative reduction of K pneumoniae-responsive T cells in the PB of AS patients as compared with healthy controls. This may reflect a defective peripheral T cell defense in the immune response to Klebsiella and may allow bacterial antigens to reach the synovium, where they initiate specific T cell responses.
Hermann
E
E
Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
Sucké
B
B
Droste
U
U
Meyer zum Büschenfelde
K H
KH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000276:immunology; D002999:Clone Cells; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D012016:Reference Values; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D013582:Synovial Fluid / Q000166:cytology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D018834:Chaperonin 60; D000939:Epitopes; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen