Multifactorial analysis of chronicity and pathogenesis in patients with sarcoidosis

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The clinical features of sarcoidosis are heterogenous in different ethnic groups, suggesting that different genetic or environmental backgrounds influences the disease. For comparison between Japanese and Swedish in whom a correlation between lung accumulated CD4 Tcells expressing the T cell receptor (TCR) V_<alpha> 2.3 gene segment and a particular HLA type (DR3 (17), DQ2) was shown, we examined TCR V gene usage and gammadelta TCR expression in CD4 and CD8 T cells in BAL fluid and peripheral blood obtained from Japanese sarcoidosis patients and healthy controls. We used a panel of 13 monoclonal antibodies (Mab) specific for different TCR V genes, which altogether stained approximately 50% of the T cells, and triple staining techniques with flow cytometry. The patients and controls were also HLA-typed. As results, a high degree of expression of gammadelta TCR in blood T cells of close to half of the patients. Expansion of T cell subsets was readily detected in the CD8 T cell population, while a more homogenous staining pattern was found in the CD4 T cell population. On the other hand, the pattern of reactivities found in CD4 and CD8 subsets of blood lymphocytes of Japanese healthy subjects was in general found to be match that in healthy Caucasian subjects. It remains to be discussed whether influence of ethnic factors on TCR gene expression of lung T cells is greater than that of environmental ones, in the case of diseases processes such as sarcoidosis.