Altered Expression Of Cd4(+)Cd28-T Lymphocytes In Methotrexate Treated Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Background There are evidences supporting an expansion of CD4+ T lymphocytes in chronic and treated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The potential increased presence of these T cells in early RA remains elusive. Objectives Evaluate the number and distribution of circulating CD4+ T lymphocytes and their CD4+ naive T cells (T N ), central memory (T CM ), non-terminated effector memory (T NTEM ) and terminated effector memory (T TEM ) T cells subsets according to the CD28 expression in a population of recently diagnosed DMARD naive RA patients before and along the first 6 months of methotrexate (MTX) treatment. Methods The number of circulating CD4+ T lymphocytes including their activation/differentiation stages (T N , TM, TCM and TEM subsets) and the CD28 expression, in fifty untreated patients with RA before MTX treatment and at 3 and 6 months of treatment, were assayed using multiparametric flow cytometry. We also studied twenty-four age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as controls. Results RA naive patients show a significant (p Conclusions In this work, we have found that the expansion of CD4+CD28- T lymphocytes is already detected in recently and DMARD AR naive patients. Moreover this increase of CD28- T lymphocytes is also found in CD4+ T naive lymphocytes. This it is possible to suggest that the expansion of CD4+CD28- occurs associated to the development of the RA as a biological hallmark of the disease. Disclosure of Interest None declared