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Alfredomaria Lurati,1 Antonella Laria,1 Arianna Gatti,2 Bruno Brando,2 Magda Scarpellini1 1Rheumatology Unit, Fornaroli Hospital, Magenta, Italy; 2Transfusional Centre, Legnano Hospital, Legnano, Italy Objective: To determine distribution of T cells and activation degree of Th CD4+ cells in peripheral blood of patients with osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and healthy donors. Methods: Patients with established diagnosis of RA according to American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism 2010 criteria, knee or hip OA according to American College of Rheumatology criteria, and healthy blood donor volunteers were eligible. Multi-channel flow cytometry and monoclonal antibodies against CD3, CD4, CD8, CCR6, CD38, CXCR3, and HLA DR were used to distinguish and evaluate T cells' subpopulation. Results: We analyzed blood samples of 15 patients with well-defined RA, 56 with hip or knee OA, and 20 healthy age matched controls. Blood samples from RA patients showed significantly higher counts of CD4+ CD38+ DR+ (activated CD4 T cells) and Th17 (CCR6+ CXCR3-) cells as compared to OA patients and control group (P0.1). Conclusion: According to the latest view of OA disease pathogenesis, our preliminary results support the hypothesis that OA may also be a disease with an immunological/inflammatory involvement like RA. It seems that there is a quantitative but non-qualitative difference in Th17 cells' profile, including the expression of activation markers, between RA and OA. Keywords: Th17, flow cytometry, osteoarthritis |
