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Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on April 25, 2006
Rheumatology 2006 45(12):1477-1484; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kel119
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© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Decreased CD161+CD8+ T cells in the peripheral blood of patients suffering from rheumatic diseases

A. Mitsuo, S. Morimoto, Y. Nakiri, J. Suzuki, H. Kaneko, Y. Tokano, H. Tsuda, Y. Takasaki and H. Hashimoto

Department of Rheumatology and Internal Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Correspondence to: A. Mitsuo, Department of Rheumatology and Internal Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan. E-mail: iwai-kkr{at}umin.ac.jp

Objectives. Although it has been reported that the numbers of both CD4–CD8– and CD4+ natural killer T (NKT) cells are selectively decreased in the peripheral blood of patients with rheumatic diseases, there have been no reports concerning a novel subpopulation of CD8+ NKT cells. To examine whether CD161+CD8+ T cells, which are closely related to CD8+ NKT cells, are also decreased in patients with rheumatic diseases, we have investigated the expression of CD161, together with that of CD28, CD25 and CD62L, on T cells in the peripheral blood of these patients.

Methods. The rheumatic diseases evaluated in this study were systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (n= 54), mixed connective-tissue disease (MCTD) (n= 15), systemic sclerosis (SSc) (n= 14), polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) (n= 13) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n= 24). Healthy donors were examined as controls (n= 18). The expression of CD161, CD28, CD25 and CD62L on T cells was analysed by flow cytometry.

Results. Both the frequency of CD161 expression on CD8+ cells and the absolute number of CD161+CD8+ cells were significantly decreased in patients with SLE, MCTD, SSc and PM/DM. Only the absolute number of CD161+CD8+ T cells was significantly decreased in RA. CD161 expression on CD28–CD8+ T cells was significantly decreased in SLE, MCTD and SSc. The absolute number of CD161+CD8+CD62L– T cells was significantly decreased in SLE, MCTD and SSc.

Conclusions. Both the frequency and the absolute number of CD161+CD8+ T cells were decreased in the peripheral blood of patients suffering from SLE, MCTD, SSc and PM/DM. This result suggests that there is also an abnormality of NKT cells in the CD8+ population.

KEY WORDS: CD161+CD8+ T cells, CD8+ NKT cells, Rheumatic diseases


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