title: Abnormal naive and memory T lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of patients with uveitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To better define the role of lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of uveitis, we studied the expression of memory and naive cell markers on T lymphocytes from peripheral blood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surface antigens on T lymphocytes obtained from peripheral blood of 27 patients with uveitis, including 12 patients with Behçet's disease (BD), 7 patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKH), and 8 patients with idiopathic uveitis (IU), were detected by three-color flow cytometric analysis. Lymphocytes from 14 age-matched healthy control subjects were similarly evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The percentage of T lymphocytes that were CD4+CD29+ lymphocytes (memory cells) was high in all patients with uveitis, while that of CD4+CD45RA+ lymphocytes (naive cells) was lower in patients with BD and VKH, although the difference was not statistically significant. The percentage of CD29+ cells within CD3+CD4+ cell population was significantly higher in patients with BD and VKH than in the controls (p < 0.01), and the percentage of CD45RA+ cells was significantly lower in BD patients than in controls (p < 0.01). The T lymphocyte subsets in patients with IU were similar to the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show an abnormal distribution of T lymphocytes in patients with uveitis associated with an underlying systemic disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Shinshu University, School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Norose
authors.forename: X C
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D014605:Uveitis / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015704:CD4 Antigens