Adhesion of human T lymphocytes to endothelial cells isolated from the umbilical vein: I. Similar binding patterns of normal and rheumatoid T cells.

Interactions between endothelial cells (EC) and cells of the immune system play a major role in the initiation of inflammatory processes. To study these events in vitro, an assay system was developed whereby the adhesion of radioactively labelled T cells to EC was measured in normal donors and patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Human EC were isolated from umbilical cord veins, and peripheral blood T cells labeled with 51Cr were added to these EC cultures and to human foreskin fibroblasts as controls. Specific binding was calculated by subtraction of the radioactivity contained within the fibroblast controls from the total values obtained with EC. Kinetic experiments demonstrated a mean specific EC binding of 18% of total T cells after 2 h of incubation, increasing steadily to a maximum of 47% after 8 h. These results were highly reproducible using the same donors in separate experiments. Comparing normal individuals to patients with RA and SLE, no significant differences were found in adhesion patterns of peripheral blood T cells.