Older age of rheumatoid arthritis onset is associated with higher activation status of peripheral blood CD4+ T cells and disease activity

Abstract

SummaryRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease, with a clinical manifestation both systemic and in joints. It has been suggested that age at disease onset and/or patients' age have influence on disease activity and clinical outcome. The reasons for the different course of RA in older people are not known; however, the activation status of peripheral blood lymphocytes could be responsible. Our aim was to relate expression of activation markers in peripheral blood CD4 + T cells of RA patients with patients' age and/or onset age and disease activity measured by DAS28. Seventy RA patients were included into the immunological study. Two separation criteria were performed: based on age of RA onset and on the biological age of patients. We examined different activation markers, CD69, CD25, CD95 and human leucocyte antigen D-related (HLA-DR), on the CD4 + T cell surface. Division of RA patients in 10-year intervals at 40, 50 and 60 years revealed that RA patients with later disease onset were characterized by higher DAS28. This phenomenon was not limited to the division at 60 years of age but, surprisingly, the major differences were found for the 40-year onset division. Analysis of all four components of DAS28 revealed that disease activity in older disease onset was dependent on all components. Older-onset RA patients had a higher percentage of CD4 + CD25+ and CD4 + CD95 + T cells. Summarizing the major differences in DAS28 and activation status of CD4 + T cells observed for onset of disease at 40 years seems to be the most informative about the immunological status of RA patients.

A Prospective Study on Quality of Life in Patients With Arthritis

“…As inferred from the current study, most of arthritis patients are above 60 years of age, and similar results were found on a study done by Pawlowska et al [13].…”

Combination of nifedipine and subtherapeutic dose of cyclosporin additively suppresses mononuclear cells activation of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and normal individuals via Ca2+–calcineurin–nuclear factor of activated T cells pathway

“…Our study also suggested that the percentage of activated T cells was higher in the MNCs from RA patients than controls after stimulation with anti-CD3 + anti-CD28, which was consistent with a previous clinical study [27]. Abnormal T cell functions were well characterized in patients with RA [28].…”

Correlation Between the Oral Manifestations of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients on Different Treatments with The Clinical Disease Activity

“…Demographic data: In the present study, the RA patients age ranged from 30 to 50 years with mean age was (42.6) years, this matches the mean age in the study of (Ramos-Remus et al, 2002) [6].The total number of the female patients was 76 (89.4%) which is higher than the total number of males, which was 9 (10.6%), this resembles the gender distribution in other studies [2,4,7].…”