Preliminary Study On The Relationship Among Activation, Proliferation And Apoptosis Of Lymphocytes In Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a serious and life-threatening autoimmune disease that is characterized by impaired T cell regulation and B cell hyperactivity, both of which induce autoantibody production and subsequent tissue damage by immune complexes. The definite pathogenesis of SLE remains unclear. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the role of apoptosis in the pathogenesis of the disease, based on the findings of increased apoptosis in SLE patients. The apoptotic bodies are potent autoantigens and induce the activation and proliferation of lymphocytes, resulting in autoantibody production. It plays important roles in understanding the pathogenesis of SLE and applying the immune therapy to SLE patients to study the relationship among activation, proliferation and apoptosis of lymphocytes in SLE patients.The present investigations apply reverse transcription-polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) technique to semiquantitatively analyze the mRNA expression of the molecules or cytokines or proteases associated with activation, proliferation and apoptosis of lymphocytes in peripheral blood monounclear cells (PBMC) from 34 active SLE patients, 9 other non-SLE patients and 30 cases of healthy subjects. The paper is divided into 4 sections.1. Study on the expression of cositimulatory molecules in SLE patients. The interaction and capabilities of activation and proliferation of APC and T cells were detected by the levels of CD28, B7-2 and B7— 1 mRNA expression in PBMC without any stimulation. The interaction and capabilities of activation and proliferation of T cells and B cells were analyzed by the mRNA expression CD40 and CD40 ligand. The results suggest that the mean levels of B7—2 and CD40 ligand mRNA expression are significantly increased in active SLE group, compared with normal controls and other non-SLE patients respectively (p<0.01, all). The higher level expression of B7—2 and CD40 ligand may be associated with the disease activity of SLE. The ligation of CD28 and B7—2 may be an important pathway in Th2-mediated response and plays a pathological role in the development of SLE. The abnormal expression of CD40 ligand may contribute to the hyperactivity of T and/or B...