Células T helper foliculares en sangre periférica de pacientes con artritis reumatoide / Follicular helper T cells in peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Introducción. La artritis reumatoidea (AR) es una enfermedad autoinmune y crónica caracterizada por la presencia de autoanticuerpos como factor reumatoide (FR) y anticuerpos antiproteínas citrulinadas. Una población de células T helper foliculares (Tfh), que expresan CD4+CXCR5+, colabora con las células B para la producción de anticuerpos. La expresión diferencial de CXCR3 y CCR6 dentro de las células CD4+CXCR5+ define 3 subpoblaciones mayores: CXCR3+CCR6− (Tfh1), CXCR3-CCR6− (Tfh2) y CXCR3-CCR6+ (Tfh17). El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar si existe asociación entre el porcentaje de estas células y la AR, y la correlación de las mismas con actividad de la enfermedad. Material y métodos. Participaron 24 pacientes con AR, 22 controles saludables (CS) y 16 pacientes con artritis indiferenciada (AI). Los porcentajes de las células CD4+CXCR5+ y sus subpoblaciones fueron analizados por citometría de flujo. Resultados. No hubo diferencias en los porcentajes de células CD4+CXCR5+ entre los pacientes con AR y CS o entre AR y AI. Tampoco en las subpoblaciones Tfh1, Tfh2 y Tfh17. No hubo correlación entre las células T CD4+CXCR5+, Tfh1, Tfh2 y Tfh17 y el «Disease Activity Score in twenty-eigth joints» (DAS28), así como tampoco con la velocidad de sedimentación globular. Sorpresivamente, hubo una correlación positiva entre las células Tfh17 y la proteína C reactiva. Finalmente, no hubo correlación entre las células TCD4+CXCR5+ o cualquiera de las subpoblaciones y antivimentina mutada citrulinada así como tampoco entre dichas células y el FR. Conclusión. No se hallaron diferencias entre los porcentajes de las células T CD4+CXCR5+ y sus subpoblaciones en sangre periférica de los pacientes con AR y las células de los grupos controles. Esto no descarta un papel patogénico de estas células en el desarrollo y actividad de la AR (AU)

Introduction. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that is characterized by the presence of different autoantibodies such as rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies. CD4T cells expressing CXCR5, referred as follicular helper T cells (Tfh), collaborate with B cells to produce antibodies. Differential expression of CXCR3 and CCR6 within CD4+CXCR5+ T cells defines three mayor subsets: CXCR3+CCR6− (Tfh1), CXCR3-CCR6− (Tfh2) and CXCR3-CCR6+ (Tfh17). The aim of the study was to assess whether there is an association between the percentage of these cells and RA and whether there is a correlation with disease activity. Material and methods. Twenty-four RA patients, 22 healthy controls (HC) and 16 undifferentiated arthritis (UA) patients were included. Percentage of CD4+CXCR5+ T cells and their subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. Results. No differences were found in the percentages of CD4+CXCR5+ T cells in the comparison of RA vs HC or RA vs UA patients. Tfh1, Tfh2 and Tfh17 subsets showed no differences either. There was no correlation between CD4+CXCR5+T cells, Tfh1, Tfh2 and Tfh17, and Disease Activity Score in twenty-eight joints (DAS28) or erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Surprisingly, there was a positive correlation between Tfh17 cells and C-reactive protein. Finally, there was no correlation between CD4+CXCR5+ T cells, or their subsets, and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin, or between the cells and RF. Conclusion. There were no differences between the percentages of CD4+CXCR5+ T cells and their subsets in peripheral blood of RA patients and the percentages of cells in the control groups. This finding does not rule out a pathogenic role of these cells in the development and activity of RA (AU)

CCR6 overexpression predicted advanced biological behaviors and poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer

Background: CCR6 expression is deregulated in some human malignancies and may be involved in the tumor progression. The aim of the present study was to determine the CCR6 expression in gastric cancer (GC) and to clarify its clinical significance. Methods: We used western blotting to examine CCR6 protein expression in GC tissues and matched adjacent non-tumor tissues. Immunohistochemistry was performed on a large cohort of 372 postoperative GC samples. Chisquare test, Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression model were used to analyze the data. Results: Upregulated CCR6 protein expression was observed in the GC tissues by western blotting compared with the adjacent non-cancerous gastric tissues. High CCR6 expression was detected in 56.5 % (210/372) samples and significantly associated with the extracapsular extension of the tumor, tumor relapse and poor overall survival in GC (P < 0.001). Further analysis demonstrated that the CCR6 expression level stratified the patient outcome in stage II, stage III, T3/4, N positive and poorly differentiated/undifferentiated tumor subgroups. The Cox regression analysis showed that high expression of CCR6 was an independent prognostic factor for GC patients. Conclusions: CCR6 expression may be a novel biomarker for predicting clinical outcomes for GC patients

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Identification of the Single Immunodominant Region of the Native Human CC Chemokine Receptor 6 Recognized by Mouse Monoclonal Antibodies.

Chemokines and their receptors play an important role in cell trafficking and recruitment. The CCR6 chemokine receptor, selectively expressed on leukocyte populations, has been shown to play a deleterious role in the pathogenesis of various chronic inflammatory diseases and, as such, may constitute a prime target in the development of immunotherapeutic treatment. However, to date no neutralizing mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specific for this chemokine receptor have been reported, whereas information on small molecules capable of interfering with the interaction of CCR6 and its ligands is scant. Here, we report the failure to generate neutralizing mouse mAbs specific for human (hu)CCR6. Immunization of mice with peptides mimicking extracellular domains, potentially involved in CCR6 function, failed to induce Abs reactive with the native receptor. Although the use of NIH-3T3 cells expressing huCCR6 resulted in the isolation of mAbs specific for this receptor, they were not able to block the interaction between huCCR6 and huCCL20. Investigation of the anti-huCCR6 mAbs generated in the present study, as well as those commercially available, show that all mAbs invariably recognize a unique, non-neutralizing, immunodominant region in the first part of its N-terminal domain. Together, these results indicate that the generation of potential neutralizing anti-huCCR6 mAbs in the mouse is unlikely to succeed and that alternative techniques, such as the use of other animal species for immunization, might constitute a better approach to generate such a potentially therapeutic tool for the treatment of inflammatory disease.