Apoptosis in some chronic arthritic patients

In multicellular organisms, cellular homeostasis is maintained through a delicate balance between cell death.Physiological cell death occurs through a process of cell suicide called apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to determine the extent of apoptosis of neutrophils and lymphocytes in some chronic arthritic patients and to study its role in the pathogenesis of chronic arthritis process. The study included 27 SLE patients, 12 RA patients without joint effusion and 8 RA patient suffered from joint effusion, 13 osteoarthritic patients and 12 normal healthy subjects as control. All the studied cases were subjected to the following: full history, complete clinical examination, laboratory investigations including routine lab as C.BCs, ESR, CRP, RP, ANA. anti nDNA. and specific laboratory investigations: separation of lymphocyte and neutrophils from peripheral blood of all cases and from SF. of cases with joint effusion, detection of lymphocyte apoptosis after 48 h. of invitro culture and detection of neutrophil apoptosis at time of separation [zero hour], after 24 h. and 48 h. of invitro culture. The results were found that significant increase in apoptosis of PBL in SLE patients more than the other groups [P < 0.001], significant increase in synovial fluid lymphocyte and neutrophil at 0, 24 and 48 h. apoptosis in RA patients more than PBL apoptosis of all groups [p< 0.001]. Significant increase in synovial fluid also there was significant positive correlation between; PBL apoptosis and ESR and CRP in SLE patients but significant negative correlation between PBL apoptosis and absolute lymphocytic count in patients of SLE is found. Also, there was no significant difference in PBL, apoptosis between control and RA and OA patient [P > 0.05]. Lastly, there is no significant difference in PB neutrophil apoptosis between all groups at time of separation and after 24 h., 48 h. of invitro culture [P > 0.05]