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- Title
Expression of the Mucosal Lymphocyte Integrin α<sup>E</sup>&beta<sub>7</sub> and its Ligand E-Cadherin in the Synovium of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
- Authors
Trollmo, C.; Nilsson, I.-M.; Sollerman, C.; Tarkowski, A.
- Abstract
The synovial expression of the mucosal lymphocyte integrin αEβ7 and its ligand E-cadherin was analysed in order to study the relationship between T lymphocytes of the gastrointestinal tract and the synovium in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Immunohistochemical evaluation of synovium revealed that the αEβ7-expression was detectable in 16 of the 38 samples examined. A concomitant examination on circulating lymphocytes by flow cytometry showed that αEβ7-expressing lymphocytes occur less frequently in peripheral blood (PB). <em>In vitro</em> culture of lymphocytes increased the αEβ7-expression on synovial lymphocytes six-fold, whereas PB lymphocytes expressed a two-fold increase. The addition of PHA to the culture medium did not dramatically increase the αEβ7-expression on synovial lymphocytes, in contrast to PB lymphocytes where a 24-fold increase was detected. The addition of TGF-β1 to the culture of PB lymphocytes increased the αEβ7-expression three-fold. E-cadherin expression was found in all synovial tissues analysed by immunohistochemistry. These results demonstrate that synovial T lymphocytes have the capacity to express the 'mucosal-type' integrin αEβ7, possibly due to high levels of intra-articular TGF-β1. This expression might be of physiological importance since E-cadherin, the ligand for αEβ7, is richly expressed by synoviocytes. In addition, the results indicate that a high <em>in vivo</em> expression of αEβ7 is suppressed in the synovial tissue by a hitherto unknown mechanism.
- Subjects
INTEGRINS; LYMPHOCYTES; GASTROINTESTINAL system; RHEUMATOID arthritis; FLOW cytometry; IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY
- Publication
Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, 1996, Vol 44, Issue 3, p293
- ISSN
0300-9475
- Publication type
Article