African American patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) have higher proportions of CD19+ and CD20+ B-cell lineage cells in their cerebrospinal fluid than White MS patients

Abstract

Objectives: To compare proportions of B-cell lineage CD19+ and CD20+ cells in CSF of African-American (AA) and White (W) patients with MS.

Background: AA MS patients are more likely to have oligoclonal bands in CSF, higher IgG index in CSF, and higher circulating plasmablasts in blood than W MS patients. It is unknown whether the proportion of B-cells in CSF differs between AA and W patients in MS.

Methods: Demographics, disease-related information, treatment history were retrospectively collected on patients with MS who self-identified as AA or W and underwent flow cytometry of CSF during diagnostic work-up. Proportion of B-lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes, NK cells, monocytes, and plasma cells were analyzed with flow cytometry.

Results: 20 AA and 56 W MS patients fulfilled our inclusion criteria. The groups had similar demographics, CSF cell counts, protein and glucose CSF concentrations, and oligoclonal band number. IgG index was higher in AA compared to W (1.08 vs. 0.85, p = 0.031). AA had higher proportions of CD19+ (5.46 % AA vs. 2.26 % W, p = 0.006) and CD20+ (4.64 % AA vs. 1.91 % W, p = 0.004) cells but did not significantly differ in proportion of CD4+, CD8+, CD38+ bright B-cells, NK cells and monocytes.

Conclusions: B-cells are overrepresented in the CSF of African American patients with MS relative to Whites.

Keywords: African American; B-cells; CSF; Multiple Sclerosis; Neuroimmunology.