Dynamics of circulating follicular helper T cells in rheumatoid arthritis patients according to HLA-DRB1 locus

CRISTINA DEL VALLE ACOSTA

INFORMATION SYSTEMS FRONTIERS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2022

1387-3326

cells, follicular helper T (Tfh) cells and follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells are partof a circuit that may play a role in the development or progression ofrheumatoid arthritis (RA). With the aim of providing further insight into thistopic, here we evaluated the frequency of different subsets of Tfh and Tfr inuntreated and long-term treated RA patients from a cohort of Argentina, andtheir potential association with particular human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class-II variants and disease activity. We observed that the frequency of total Tfh cellsas well as of particular Tfh subsets and Tfr cells were increased in seropositiveuntreated RA patients. Interestingly, when analyzing paired samples, thefrequency of Tfh cells was reduced in synovial fluid compared to peripheralblood, while Tfr cells levels were similar in both biological fluids. Aftertreatment, a decrease in the CCR7loPD1hi Tfh subset and an increase in thefrequency of Tfr cells was observed in blood. In comparison to healthy