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Oligoclonal T cell expansion in the skin of patients with systemic sclerosis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Oligoclonal T cell expansion in the skin of patients with systemic sclerosis

Lazaros I Sakkas, Bin Xu, Carol M Artlett, Song Lu, Sergio A Jimenez and Chris D Platsoucas
The Journal of immunology (1950), v 168(7), pp 3649-3659
01 Apr 2002
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.168.7.3649
PMID: 11907131
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.168.7.3649View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

T-Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology Amino Acid Sequence Humans Middle Aged Scleroderma, Systemic - genetics Scleroderma, Systemic - pathology Molecular Sequence Data Male Scleroderma, Systemic - immunology Cell Differentiation - genetics Cell Differentiation - immunology Gene Rearrangement, beta-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor - genetics T-Lymphocyte Subsets - pathology T-Lymphocyte Subsets - metabolism Base Sequence Cloning, Molecular Adult Female Clone Cells Skin - pathology Skin - immunology
Fibrosis, microvascular fibroproliferative alterations, and autoantibody production are the main features of systemic sclerosis (SSc), and all of them can be explained by cytokine production by activated T cells. However, little is known about the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of SSc, and there is no information on the Ag(s) that elicits such activation. To determine whether T cells infiltrating the skin biopsies of patients with SSc are oligoclonal, beta-chain TCR transcripts from T cells infiltrating the skin of five patients with SSc of recent onset were amplified by either Vbeta-specific PCR or nonpalindromic adaptor PCR. The resulting PCR products were subsequently cloned and sequenced. High proportions of identical beta-chain TCR transcripts ranging from 43 to 90% of those sequenced were found in five patients, strongly suggesting the presence of oligoclonal T cells in these infiltrates. A dominant T cell clone was found to be clonally expanded in skin biopsies obtained from a single patient with SSc at three different times (0, 8, and 13 mo earlier) and from three different skin regions. beta-chain TCR transcripts from PBMC from normal donors (methodological control) were unique when compared with each other, typical for polyclonal populations of T cells. The finding of oligoclonal T cells infiltrating the skin of patients with SSc suggests that these T cells have undergone proliferation in situ in the skin and clonal expansion in response to as yet unidentified Ag(s). These results suggest that T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.

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173 citations in Web of Science
190 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Immunology
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