Disturbance of peripheral blood B cells homeostasis in rheumatoid arthritis and the influence of therapy on B cells homeostasis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the characteristics and the frequencies of B cell subsets in peripheral blood of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients,and to study the correlation between B cell subsets and clinical indices and influence of different therapies on B cell subsets to deeply understand the pathogenesis of RA.Methods Peripheral blood witched memory B cells,non-switched memory B cells,naive B cells,and double negative B cells of 141 patients and 33 healthy controls were measured by flow cytometry.Patients were divided into three groups based on their therapeutic regimen,including tumor necrosis factor-or (TNF-α) inhibitors combined with disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs),DMARDs only and patients without any therapy.The relevance between B cells subsets and clinical manifestations,lab test results exemption were assessed as well as the influence of different therapies.All data were were analyzed by Statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) 23.0 statistical analysis for unpaired t test,analysis of variance and Spearman's correlations analysis.Results ① New-onset RA patients with less than 12 weeks disease duration and never accepted any drugs had a significantly lower frequency of peripheral blood memory B cells,including non-switched memory B cells [(8 ±4)％ vs (13 ±4)％,P＜0.05,t =3.3)] and switched memory B cells [(18±10)％ vs (23±7)％,P＜0.05,t=2.2)],than healthy individuals.② There was a negative association between non-switched memory B cells and disease activity score in 28 joints (r=-0.23,P＜0.05).③ Negative association between non-switched memory B cells and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),lgG was found,while therewas no association between pre-switched B cells and other laboratory test results.④ Non-switched memory B cells and switched memory B cells increased after TNF-α arntagonist or DMARDs therapy.Conclusion The results of this study suggest that B cell abnormalities in new-onset RA patients with short disease duration are reduced non-switched memory B cells and switched memory B cells.A negative correlation has been found between non-switched memory B cells and ESR and lgG.B cells subsets frequency are changed by TNF-α antagonist and DMARDs,which suggests that changes of B cell subsets may contribute to the occurrence and development of RA.