Synovial fluid antigen-presenting cells unmask peripheral blood T cell responses to bacterial antigens in inflammatory arthritis.

We and others have previously shown that synovial fluid (SF) mononuclear cells (MC) from patients with both reactive arthritis and other inflammatory arthritides proliferate in vitro in response to bacteria clinically associated with the triggering of reactive arthritis. In all cases, such SFMC responses are greater than the corresponding peripheral blood (PB) MC responses, often markedly so, and the mechanism for this is unclear. We have investigated this phenomenon by comparing the relative abilities of irradiated non-T cells derived from PB and SF to support autologous T cell responses to ReA-associated bacteria. Seven patients whose SFMC had been shown previously to respond to bacteria were studied. We demonstrate antigen-specific responses of PB T cells to bacteria in the presence of SF non-T cells which are in marked contrast to the minimal responses of either unfractionated PBMC or PB T cells reconstituted with PB non-T cells. We also show that PB, but not SF T cells respond strongly to autologous SF non-T cells in the absence of antigen or mitogen. These findings demonstrate that SF antigen-presenting cells (APC) are potent activators of PB T cells. We conclude that the contrasting responses of SFMC and PBMC to bacterial antigens may be accounted for at least in part by an enhanced ability of SF APC to support T cell proliferative responses.