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. 1982 May;48(2):443–448.

Immunoregulatory T cell subpopulations in patients with scleroderma using monoclonal antibodies.

E C Keystone, C Lau, D D Gladman, S Wilkinson, P Lee, A Shore
PMCID: PMC1536470  PMID: 6213329

Abstract

Twenty-eight patients with scleroderma were compared with 22 healthy age-matched subjects. Monoclonal antibodies were used to detect the whole T cell population (OKT3), T helper cells (OKT4), and T suppressor/cytotoxic cells (OKT8) by indirect immunofluorescence on isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. A subset of scleroderma patients (i.e. 30% or eight of 28 patients) exhibited an elevated ratio of OKT4/OKT8 cells which could be accounted for, mainly by a reduction in OKT8 cells compared with controls. The scleroderma patients with an elevated OKT4/OKT8 ratio tended to be younger, have a shorter disease duration and more extensive skin involvement than patients with a normal OKT4/OKT8 ratio. There was no correlation with the presence of autoantibodies, drug therapy, or HLA-DR type. In order to further determine whether this imbalance in immunoregulatory cell subpopulations was specific for scleroderma, we further studied 16 patients with psoriatic arthritis but without manifest autoimmunity and delineated a similar subset of patients with an elevated OKT4/OKT8 cell ratio (i.e. 38% or six of 16 patients). The results demonstrate similar immunoregulatory T cell imbalances in patients with scleroderma and psoriatic arthritis. These findings suggest that numerical imbalances in lymphocyte subpopulations may not be specific for autoimmune disorders.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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