Lazarovits A I, Karsh J
Division of Nephrology, Ottawa General Hospital, Canada.
Clin Exp Immunol. 1988 Jun;72(3):470-5.
To evaluate the possibility of antigenic modulation in vivo, we studied the expression of the CD7 antigen on the surface of peripheral blood and intrasynovial lymphocytes from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This disease is noted for features predicting changes in CD7: (1) increased expression related to activation during an immune response through possible contact with 'disease associated antigens' and (2) decreased expression associated with lymphocytes moving through tissue. We found a highly significant decrease of CD7 on RA T cells in vivo (P less than 10(-4] that was not related to disease activity, drug ingestion, or abnormalities in the ability of RA T cells to express or modulate the antigen in vitro. Similar decreased expression was observed on many intrasynovial T cells that were nevertheless activated as measured by expression of activation markers such as Act I (a late lymphocyte activation antigen) and Act II (the transferrin receptor). Decreased expression of CD7 occurs naturally in vivo in RA; this observation may have future significance in better understanding the immunopathogenesis of this disease.
为评估体内抗原调制的可能性，我们研究了类风湿关节炎（RA）患者外周血和滑膜内淋巴细胞表面CD7抗原的表达。该疾病具有预测CD7变化的特征：（1）通过与“疾病相关抗原”的可能接触，免疫反应激活期间表达增加；（2）与淋巴细胞通过组织移动相关的表达减少。我们发现，体内RA T细胞上的CD7显著降低（P小于10^(-4)），这与疾病活动、药物摄入或RA T细胞在体外表达或调制抗原的能力异常无关。在许多滑膜内T细胞上也观察到类似的表达降低，然而，通过激活标志物如Act I（一种晚期淋巴细胞激活抗原）和Act II（转铁蛋白受体）的表达测量，这些T细胞仍被激活。RA体内自然发生CD7表达降低；这一观察结果可能对更好地理解该疾病的免疫发病机制具有未来意义。
