J. Markeljevic et al., PERIPHERAL-BLOOD CD5-CELL SUBSET IN THE REMISSION PHASE OF SYSTEMIC CONNECTIVE-TISSUE DISEASES( B), Journal of rheumatology, 21(12), 1994, pp. 2225-2230
Objective. To get a better insight into the level of circulating CD5+B
cells as related to the systemic connective tissue disease activity.
Methods. Peripheral blood CD5+CD19+ cells of patients in the remission
phase of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (n = 28), Sjogren's syndr
ome (SS) (n = 20), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 26), and 19 control
healthy subjects were analyzed by 2-color flow cytometry. Results. In
comparison to control group, the patients with SLE had a significant i
ncrease in the relative CD19+CD5+ blood cell count (p <0.0005); this c
ount was also different from the finding in both RA (p <0.005) and pat
ients with SS (p <0.05). In contrast, the proportion of B cells expres
sing CD5 (within an individual B cell population) was significantly in
creased in all the 3 diseases compared to healthy subjects (SLE, p <0.
0001; SS, p <0.05; and RA, p <0.01). In the multivariate discriminant
analysis, a discriminant function defined by the CD19+CD5+ subset stro
ngly discriminated SLE, SS and RA from the control, but also SLE from
both SS and RA. Conclusion. Our findings demonstrated that, in relatio
n to healthy control subjects, the blood CD5+B subset tended to be ele
vated in the patients in the remission phase of systemic connective ti
ssue diseases, particularly in SLE.