1. Synovial B cells of rheumatoid arthritis express ZAP-70 which increases the survival and correlates with the inflammatory and autoimmune phenotype
- Author
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Tolusso, Barbara, De Santis, Maria, Bosello, Silvia, Gremese, Elisa, Gobessi, Stefania, Cuoghi, Ilaria, Totaro, Michele C., Bigotti, Giulio, Rumi, Carlo, Efremov, Dimitar G., and Ferraccioli, Gianfranco
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B cells , *SYNOVIAL fluid , *BIOMARKERS , *IMMUNOREGULATION , *RHEUMATOID arthritis , *AUTOIMMUNITY , *PHENOTYPES , *INFLAMMATION , *PATIENTS - Abstract
Abstract: B cells have acquired an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since B cell depletion allowed to rescue patients poorly responders to TNFα blockers. This study focused on the involvement of ZAP-70 as a bio-marker of B cells immune activation in RA. ZAP-70 expression in synovial fluid (SF) B cells obtained from RA patients was increased compared to SF B cells of osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Moreover we found that ZAP-70 positive/CD38 positive and ZAP-70 positive/CD5 positive B cells were enriched in SF. The analysis of B cell apoptosis in vitro showed that the percentage of ZAP-70 negative B cells spontaneously undergoing apoptosis was significantly higher than ZAP-70 positive B cells. The ZAP-70 positive B cell ratio (SF/peripheral blood (PB)) showed a positive correlation with SF autoantibody levels and with local levels of BAFF and IL6. ZAP-70 positive B cells seem to define a subset characterized by increased survival and high relationship with local inflammation and autoimmunity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2009
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