Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: B lymphocytopenia in rheumatoid arthritis is associated with the DRB1 shared epitope and increased acute phase response. | Available online http 4 4 R1 Research article B lymphocytopenia in rheumatoid arthritis is associated with the DRB1 shared epitope and increased acute phase response Ulf Wagner Sylke Kaltenhauser Matthias Pierer Bernd Wilke Sybille Arnold and Holm Hantzschel Department of Medicine IV University of Leipzig Leipzig Germany Corresponding author Holm Hantzschel e-mail haentzho@ Received 7 January 2002 Revisions received 18 March 2002 Accepted 27 March 2002 Published 2 May 2002 Arthritis Res 2002 4 R1 2002 Wagner et al. licensee BioMed Central Ltd Print ISSN 1465-9905 Online ISSN 1465-9913 Abstract The influence of HLA DRB1 alleles on B-cell homeostasis was analyzed in 164 patients with rheumatoid arthritis RA . The percentages of CD19 B lymphocytes determined in the peripheral circulation of 94 retrospectively recruited RA patients followed a bimodal distribution. Two frequency peaks B-celllow patients and B-cellhigh patients were separated by the population median of a B-cell frequency of of all lymphocytes. Human leucocyte antigen genotyping revealed that the B-celllow patients were more frequently positive for the RA-associated HLA DRB1 shared epitope SE than were B-cellhigh patients. Accordingly SE-positive patients had lower CD19 percentages in the rank-sum analysis when compared with SE-negative patients and were markedly B lymphocytopenic when compared with a healthy control group. To confirm the differential frequencies of CD19 B cells absolute numbers in peripheral blood were determined prospectively in a cohort of 70 RA patients with recent onset disease. SE-positive patients were found to have lower absolute numbers of circulating CD19 B cells. B-cell counts below the mean of the study population were associated with higher acute phase response and with increased levels of rheumatoid factor IgA. No correlation between absolute numbers of circulating B cells and radiographic progression of joint destruction was
