Cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen expression in children with atopic dermatitis and non-atopic healthy children.
Cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA) is a cell surface glycoprotein which has been implicated in the homing of lymphocytes to cutaneous sites. It is postulated to play an important role in T-cell migration to skin in atopic dermatitis; however, the expression of CLA in both normal children and children with atopic dermatitis has not been extensively studied. If CLA expression on T cells were important in the traffic of lymphocytes to atopic dermatitis skin lesions, it might be expected that the proportion of CLA+ T cells in unstimulated peripheral blood from children with atopic dermatitis would be elevated. We have examined the proportion of CLA+ T cells in children with atopic dermatitis and non-atopic age-matched controls. The proportion of CLA+ T cells in non-atopic children was highly associated with and increased with increasing age (r = 0.88, p < 0.001). There was no difference between the proportion of T cells expressing CLA in the unstimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from children with severe (p = 0.18) or with mild/moderate (p = 0.3) atopic dermatitis and age-matched non-atopic controls. Despite this, children with atopic dermatitis did show evidence of perturbation of CLA expression, as unlike the non-atopic children the proportion of CLA+ T cells in the atopic children did not correlate with age. These findings suggest that while CLA expression may play a role in atopic dermatitis, other as yet undefined surface markers are likely to principally determine the migration of T cells to skin in atopic dermatitis.
Campbell
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Department of Immunology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Kemp
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D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology; D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016201:Receptors, Lymphocyte Homing / Q000378:metabolism*; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology
D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D017252:CD3 Complex; C063419:CTAGE1 protein, human; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D016201:Receptors, Lymphocyte Homing