Journal
ARTHRITIS RESEARCH & THERAPY
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages R30-R37Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/ar1453
Keywords
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; macrophage activation syndrome; natural killer cells; perforin; reactive hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
Categories
Funding
- NIAMS NIH HHS [P01 AR048929] Funding Source: Medline
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS AND MUSCULOSKELETAL AND SKIN DISEASES [P01AR048929] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) has been reported in association with many rheumatic diseases, most commonly in systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (sJRA). Clinically, MAS is similar to hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a genetic disorder with absent or depressed natural killer (NK) function. We have previously reported that, as in HLH, patients with MAS have profoundly decreased NK activity, suggesting that this abnormality might be relevant to the pathogenesis of the syndrome. Here we examined the extent of NK dysfunction across the spectrum of diseases that comprise juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from patients with pauciarticular (n = 4), polyarticular ( n = 16), and systemic ( n = 20) forms of JRA. NK cytolytic activity was measured after co-incubation of PBMC with the NK-sensitive K562 cell line. NK cells (CD56(+)/T cell receptor [TCR]-alphabeta-), NK T cells (CD56(+)/TCR-alphabeta(+)), and CD8(+) T cells were also assessed for perforin and granzyme B expression by flow cytometry. Overall, NK cytolytic activity was significantly lower in patients with sJRA than in other JRA patients and controls. In a subgroup of patients with predominantly sJRA, NK cell activity was profoundly decreased: in 10 of 20 patients with sJRA and in only 1 of 20 patients with other JRA, levels of NK activity were below two standard deviations of pediatric controls ( P = 0.002). Some decrease in perforin expression in NK cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes was seen in patients within each of the JRA groups with no statistically significant differences. There was a profound decrease in the proportion of circulating CD56(bright) NK cells in three sJRA patients, a pattern similar to that previously observed in MAS and HLH. In conclusion, a subgroup of patients with JRA who have not yet had an episode of MAS showed decreased NK function and an absence of circulating CD56(bright) population, similar to the abnormalities observed in patients with MAS and HLH. This phenomenon was particularly common in the systemic form of JRA, a clinical entity strongly associated with MAS.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available