The Expression of BTLA Was Increased and the Expression of HVEM and LIGHT Were Decreased in the T Cells of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis [corrected]

Bin Yang; Zhuochun Huang; Weihua Feng; Wei Wei; Junlong Zhang; Yun Liao; Linhui Li; Xinle Liu; Zhiqiang Wu; Bei Cai; Yangjuan Bai; Lanlan Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155345

The Expression of BTLA Was Increased and the Expression of HVEM and LIGHT Were Decreased in the T Cells of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis [corrected]

PLoS One. 2016 May 16;11(5):e0155345. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155345. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Bin Yang¹, Zhuochun Huang¹, Weihua Feng¹, Wei Wei², Junlong Zhang¹, Yun Liao¹, Linhui Li¹, Xinle Liu¹, Zhiqiang Wu¹, Bei Cai¹, Yangjuan Bai¹, Lanlan Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 610041, Chengdu, China.
² West China Medical School, Sichuan University, 610041, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Background: Currently, the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not clearly understood. The LIGHT/HVEM/BTLA co-signaling pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of RA, although reports on the expression levels of LIGHT, HVEM and BTLA in T lymphocytes from RA patients are limited.

Method: In this study, we recruited 30 healthy controls and 21 RA patients. Clinical characteristics were collected for RA patients. The levels of LIGHT, HVEM and BTLA expressed on the surface of circulating T cells of RA patients and healthy controls were measured by flow cytometry.

Result: The percentages of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes that expressed BTLA from RA patients were all higher than those of the controls (all p < 0.05), while the percentages of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes that expressed HVEM and LIGHT were all lower than those of the controls (all p < 0.05). The rheumatoid factor and the percentage of HVEM+CD4+ T lymphocytes showed a statistically significant negative correlation in RA patients (r = -0.453, p = 0.039), as did the swollen joint count and the percentage of BTLA+CD8+ T lymphocytes (r = -0.501, p = 0.021).

Conclusion: Here, we provide the first report on the increased expression of BTLA in T lymphocytes and on the decreased expression of HVEM and LIGHT in RA patients. BTLA, HVEM and LIGHT might be involved in the pathogenesis of RA and have the potential to be new clinically useful characteristics of RA.

Grants and funding

Funding provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81301496 and 81202354), URL: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.