Selective T cell receptor decrease in peripheral blood T lymphocytes of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the phenotype and T cell receptor (TCR) use in peripheral blood T cells in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA).


METHODS
Circulating T lymphocyte phenotype and TCR repertoire were studied by flow cytometry using specific monoclonal antibodies in 23 healthy controls and 37 patients with PMR/GCA.


RESULTS
Patients with active PMR/GCA showed an inverse relation between naive and memory CD4+ T cells and unchanged expression of activation surface markers compared with controls. CD4+ TCR BV expansions were seen in 12 (52%) controls and in 8 (22%) patients with active disease (p = 0.03). Within the CD8+ subset, the frequency of expansions was similar between groups. Most T cell expansions remained stable over time. Seventeen of the 23 patients with active PMR/GCA disclosed a simultaneous CD4+ and CD8+ T cell depletion for at least one particular BV family with a clear predominance of BV5S2/S3.


CONCLUSIONS
The phenotype of circulating T cells in patients with PMR/GCA is similar to that found in aged healthy subjects, except for the surface markers of naive and memory cells and a striking non-activated phenotype. Specific BV expansions in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, which remain stable over time, are frequent in aged subjects, including patients with PMR/GCA. TCR BV changes in patients with active disease seem to be also age related, except for the significant decrease in certain BV families in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets, which may favour the participation of a superantigen stimulation in PMR/GCA.
Lopez-Hoyos
M
M
Rheumatology Division, Hospital Universitario Marques de Valdecilla, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
Bartolome-Pacheco
M J
MJ
Blanco
R
R
Rodriguez-Valverde
V
V
Martinez-Taboada
V M
VM
D000368:Aged; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000276:immunology*; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000097:blood; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011111:Polymyalgia Rheumatica / Q000276:immunology*; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000097:blood*; D018089:Superantigens / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D018089:Superantigens