Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Rheumatoid Arthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

Synovial VLA-1+ T cells display an oligoclonal and partly distinct repertoire in rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.

Goldstein I, Simon AJ, Ben Horin S, Matzri S, Koltakov A, Langevitz P, Rechavi G, Amariglio N, Bank I

Cancer Research Center and Institute of Hematology, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Israel. Itamar.Goldstein@sheba.health.gov.il

VLA-1 integrin expressing T cells are more frequent in inflammatory synovial fluids (SF) compared to peripheral blood. Recent studies suggest that VLA-1 expression mainly marks IFNgamma+ T cells while excluding both IL-4+ and regulatory FoxP3+ T cells. To further characterize the TCR repertoire of the potentially pathogenic VLA-1+ IFNgamma+ T cells, isolated from SF of adult patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, we determined the complementarity determining region (CDR)3 spectratypes. Here we show in a cohort of 9 patients that VLA-1+ T cells display a perturbed repertoire that, moreover, differs from that of VLA-1- synovial T cells and even VLA-1+ PB T cells. Importantly, random sequencing of the CDR3 region of the TCR variable beta (BV) 6.1 gene of both VLA-1+ and VLA-1- synovial T cells, in one patient, revealed that their sequences were by and large different (29 out of 33 clones). Thus, our results imply that VLA-1+ T cells that infiltrate into inflamed joints represent a partly distinct and highly oligoclonal population of Th1 cells, probably selected by unique antigens.

Published 20 June 2008 in Clin Immunol, 128(1): 75-84.
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