Association between endogenously activated t cells and immunoglobulin-secreting b cells in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus

✍ Scribed by Philip L. Cohen; David A. Litvin; John B. Winfield

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 616 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780250209

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by increased numbers of circulating B cells activated polyclonally to secrete immunoglobulin. Because T cells secrete, or shed, various factors that are functionally important in regulating immunoglobulin production by B cells, a reverse hemolytic plaque assay was developed to quantitate such activated T cells. In this technique, we used a rabbit antiserum raised to supernatants of concanavalin‐A–stimulated human lymphocytes. The relevant antigenic specificity of this antiserum is directed toward the shed surface membrane determinant(s) preferentially expressed on activated T cells. Freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 14 SLE patients contained more than 10 times the number of endogenously activated T cells than cells from normal subjects. Within the SLE group, plaqueforming T cells were particularly increased in patients with active disease. By linear regression analysis, a significant positive correlation was revealed between such activated T cells and immunoglobulin‐secreting B cells, also measured by a reverse plaque assay (r = 0.83). It appears that both activated B cells and T cells circulate in increased numbers in SLE. Additional investigation will be required to define the molecular nature of the T cell product(s) being measured and to clarify the relationship of these findings to the immunoregulatory abnormalities in this disorder.