The B Cell Repertoire in Rheumatoid Arthritis

✍ Scribed by Marinette Moynier; Mohamed Abderrazik; Catherine Didry; Jacques Sany; Jean Brochier

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 571 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780350108

✦ Synopsis

Objective. We sought to compare the frequencies of precursors producing IgM rheumatoid factors (IgM-RFs) in synovial fluid and peripheral blood B cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods. We used limiting-dilution analysis of Epstein-Barr virus-activated B cells from seropositive and seronegative patients. B cell precursors producing IgM against insulin, an irrelevant autoantigen, were also assessed for comparison.

Results. On average, IgM-RF-producing precursors were 15-fold higher in the synovial fluid than in the peripheral blood of seropositive RA patients, but not in seronegative RA patients. The frequency of B cell precursors producing IgM against insulin was lower in the synovial fluid than in the peripheral blood of both the seropositive and the seronegative patient groups; moreover, the concentrations were similar in both groups.

Conclusion. The findings provide evidence against a nonspecific accumulation of IgM-producing cells in the synovial fluid, and suggest that there is an active attraction of the RF-producing B cell precursors toward sites of inflammation in RA.

Antibodies against the Fc portion of IgG (rheumatoid factors [RFs]) are the most common autoantibodies occurring in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1). Their pathogenic role in the disease is not clearly From INSERM U291,