Regulatory T cell activity specific to human type II and III collagens in rheumatoid arthritis.

Fifty-one patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined for their immune response potential to human collagen type II and III. It was found that T cells of 57% of patients with RA proliferated to collagen type III whereas only 27% of T cells of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and healthy controls responded to this antigen by proliferation (p less than 0.04). A lower percentage (38%) of patients with RA had proliferative responses to collagen type II in comparison to 17% of responders in healthy controls. The capability to produce T cell helper factors specific to collagen type III was found to be significantly higher in patients treated with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) (60%) in comparison to patients with OA (16%) and healthy controls (13%). Immunoregulatory drugs affected the specific T helper function in response to collagen type III but did not change the proliferative responses to collagen type II and III in patients with RA. HLA analyses revealed a significant difference in the frequency of HLA-DRw10 between our sample of patients with RA and healthy controls.