Increased expression of B7-1 costimulatory molecule on cerebrospinal fluid cells of patients with multiple sclerosis and infectious central nervous system disease.
The expression of the costimulatory molecule B7-1 (BB-1; CD80) and its ligand CD28 was investigated on peripheral blood (PB) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) T and B lymphocytes and monocytes in 11 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) 21 age-matched healthy controls and 10 patients with central nervous system (CNS) infectious disease (CID). Three channel flow cytometry was used with a novel gating technique in order to unambiguously identify the low numbers of B lymphocytes present in normal CSF. There was a significantly higher fraction of B7-1+ B lymphocytes in the CSF of patients with MS (72%) and CID (69%) when compared with healthy individuals (53%; p < 0.0001 and p < 0.002, respectively). Furthermore, two patients with a clinical picture of encephalitis showed a profoundly increased B7-1 expression on CSF monocytes. Comparison of absolute numbers of B7-1+ B lymphocytes/mL CSF between MS patients and healthy controls revealed a highly increased frequency of these cells among MS patients (235 cells/mL in MS patients versus 3.9 cells/mL in controls; p < 0.0001) with no overlap between the groups, which was otherwise seen for all other analyzed cell populations. We therefore hypothesize that activated B lymphocytes expressing high levels of B7-1 may be of pathogenetic importance in the development and maintenance of the MS disease.
Svenningsson
A
A
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Sahlgren's University Hospital, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. ansv@molmed.ks.se
Dotevall
L
L
Stemme
S
S
Andersen
O
O
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000941:Antigens / Q000032:analysis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D018122:B7-1 Antigen / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000276:immunology; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000166:cytology; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000276:immunology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D000941:Antigens; D018122:B7-1 Antigen