title: T lymphocytes from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are resistant to induction of autophagy.
abstract: Autophagy, the cytoprotection mechanism that takes place under metabolic impairment, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity. Here, we investigated the spontaneous and induced autophagic behavior of T lymphocytes from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared with that of T lymphocytes from healthy donors by measuring the autophagy marker microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3)-II. No significant differences in spontaneous autophagy were found between T lymphocytes from patients with SLE and from healthy donors, apart from CD4(+) naive T cells from patients with SLE in which constitutively higher levels of autophagy (P<0.001) were detected. At variance, whereas treatment of T lymphocytes from healthy donors with serum IgG from patients with SLE resulted in a 2-fold increase in LC3-II levels (P<0.001), T lymphocytes from SLE patients were resistant to autophagic induction and also displayed an up-regulation of genes negatively regulating autophagy, e.g., α-synuclein. These findings could open new perspectives in the search for pathogenetic determinants of SLE progression and in the development of therapeutic strategies aimed to recover T-cell compartment homeostasis by restoring autophagic susceptibility.
authors: Lupus Clinic, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialità Mediche, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors: Cristiano
authors: C
authors: Alessandri
authors: Cristiana
authors: C
authors: Barbati
authors: Davide
authors: D
authors: Vacirca
authors: Paola
authors: P
authors: Piscopo
authors: Annamaria
authors: A
authors: Confaloni
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Sanchez
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Maselli
authors: Tania
authors: T
authors: Colasanti
authors: Fabrizio
authors: F
authors: Conti
authors: Simona
authors: S
authors: Truglia
authors: Andras
authors: A
authors: Perl
authors: Guido
authors: G
authors: Valesini
authors: Walter
authors: W
authors: Malorni
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Ortona
authors: Marina
authors: M
authors: Pierdominici
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G