Karolinska Univ Hosp, Ctr Mol Med, Dept Med Solna, Div Rheumatol, Stockholm, Sweden.;Karolinska Inst, Stockholm, Sweden.
Uchtenhagen, Hannes (författare)
Karolinska Univ Hosp, Ctr Mol Med, Dept Med Solna, Div Rheumatol, Stockholm, Sweden.;Karolinska Inst, Stockholm, Sweden.;BRI Virginia Mason, Translat Res Program, Seattle, WA USA.
Karolinska Univ Hosp, Ctr Mol Med, Dept Med Solna, Div Rheumatol, Stockholm, Sweden;Karolinska Inst, Stockholm, Sweden. Karolinska Univ Hosp, Ctr Mol Med, Dept Med Solna, Div Rheumatol, Stockholm, Sweden.;Karolinska Inst, Stockholm, Sweden.;BRI Virginia Mason, Translat Res Program, Seattle, WA USA. (creator_code:org_t)
Background HLA class II tetramers can be used for ex vivo enumeration and phenotypic characterisation of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells. They are increasingly applied in settings like allergy, vaccination and autoimmune diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder for which many autoantigens have been described. Results Using multi-parameter flow cytometry, we developed a multi-HLA class II tetramer approach to simultaneously study several antigen specificities in RA patient samples. We focused on previously described citrullinated HLA-DRB1*04:01-restricted T cell epitopes from alpha-enolase, fibrinogen-beta, vimentin as well as cartilage intermediate layer protein (CILP). First, we examined inter-assay variability and the sensitivity of the assay in peripheral blood from healthy donors (n = 7). Next, we confirmed the robustness and sensitivity in a cohort of RA patients with repeat blood draws (n = 14). We then applied our method in two different settings. We assessed lymphoid tissue from seropositive arthralgia (n = 5) and early RA patients (n = 5) and could demonstrate autoreactive T cells in individuals at risk of developing RA. Lastly, we studied peripheral blood from early RA patients (n = 10) and found that the group of patients achieving minimum disease activity (DAS28 < 2.6) at 6 months follow-up displayed a decrease in the frequency of citrulline-specific T cells. Conclusions Our study demonstrates the development of a sensitive tetramer panel allowing simultaneous characterisation of antigen-specific T cells in ex vivo patient samples including RA 'at risk' subjects. This multi-tetramer approach can be useful for longitudinal immune-monitoring in any disease with known HLA-restriction element and several candidate antigens.
Ämnesord
MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES -- Basic Medicine -- Immunology in the medical area (hsv//eng)
MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Immunologi inom det medicinska området (hsv//swe)
MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper (hsv//swe)
MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES -- Basic Medicine (hsv//eng)