Jp. Aniszewski et al., Relationship between disease duration and predominant orbital T cell subset in Graves' ophthalmopathy, J CLIN END, 85(2), 2000, pp. 776-780
We sought to determine whether the predominant orbital T helper (T,) cell s
ubset in orbital T cell clones established from patients with Graves' ophth
almopathy (GO) might be related to disease duration. A total of 117 clones
were established from orbital adipose/connective tissues of 6 GO patients,
and cytokine production was measured in 57 CD3(+)CD4(+) clones. T(H)1-type
clones were predominant in cultures from patients with recent onset (<2 yr)
Graves' hyperthyroidism(n = 44; T(H)1/T(H)0/T(H)2 = 57/29/14%) or GO (n =
53 clones; T(H)1/T(H)0/T(H)2 = 47/30/23%). In contrast, T(H)2-type clones p
redominated in cultures from patients with more remote onset (>2 yr) hypert
hyroidism (n = 13; T(H)1/T(H)0/T(H)2 = 0/31/69%; P < 0.005) or GO (n = 4; T
(H)1/T(H)0/T(H)2 = 0/25/75%; P = 0.05). In addition, we established T cell
clones from 1 T(H)1-dominant patient with recent-onset thyroid and eye dise
ase using either IL-2 (12.5 ng/mL) alone or IL-2 plus IL-4 (5 ng/mL) and fo
und no shift toward recovery of T(H)2-type clones in the latter. In conclus
ion, although the CD3(+)CD4(+) clones characterized were not necessarily ti
ssue antigen specific, our findings suggest that cell-mediated (T(H)1-type)
immune reactions may predominate in the orbit in early GO, whereas humoral
immunity (T(H)2-type) might play the greater role in later stages of the d
isease.