CXCR5+ CD4 T Cells Signature Differentiates Takayasu Arteritis from Giant Cell Arteritis

Anne-Claire Desbois¹, Valentin Quiniou², Patrick Bruneval³, Nicolas Derian², Anna Maciejewski-Duval², Marlène Garrido⁴, Cloé Comarmond⁵, Jacques Pouchot⁶, Michelle Rosenzwajg², David Klatzmann², Patrice Cacoub⁷ and David Saadoun⁸, ¹Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Paris, France, ²GHPS, Paris, France, ³HEGP, Paris, France, ⁴I3 laboratory, Pitié-Salpétrière, Paris, France, ⁵DHU 2iB Internal Medicine Referal Center for Autoimmune diseases Pitie Hospital, Paris, France, ⁶Internal Medicine Department, European Hospital Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, ⁷Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France, ⁸Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7211, and Inflammation-Immunopathology-Biotherapy Department (DHU i2B), F-75005, Paris, France; INSERM, UMR_S 959, F-75013, Paris, France; CNRS, FRE3632, F-75005, Paris, France; AP-HP, Groupe Hospitalier, Paris, France

Meeting: 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 18, 2017

Keywords: giant cell arteritis, T cells, takayasu arteritis and vasculitis

Session Information

Date: Monday, November 6, 2017

Title: T Cell Biology and Targets in Autoimmune Disease Poster I

Session Type: ACR Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose: To compare microarray gene analysis of patients with Giant cell arteritis to patients with Takayasu arteritis.

Methods: We performed comparative microarray gene analysis of purified CD4+ T cells of TA (n=14) and GCA (n=15) patients.

Results: We found that purified CD4+ T cells of GCA and TA patients exhibit distinct RNA signatures. Sixty-seven genes were differentially expressed, among which CXCR5, CCR6 and CCL20 were shown to be significantly up-regulated in CD4+ T cells of TA patients as compared to those of GCA. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed that CXCR5+ CD4+ cells, defined as T Follicular Helper cells (TFH), were significantly higher in TA patients as compared to GCA and healthy donors (HD) [median proportion of CXCR5+ CD4+ T cells of 15.4 (10;30.8) in TA versus 5.3 (1.4; 12.2) in GCA (p<0.0001) and 9.7 (5.6; 12.5) in HD (p=0.0001)]. Among TFH subpopulations, TFH-17 (defined as CCR6+ CXCR5+ CD4+ T cells) was specifically increased in TA [4.52 (1.07; 13.35) in TA vs 0.69 (0.13; 2.16) in GCA (p=0.0001) and 2.3 (0.3; 4.2) in HD (p=0.02)]. The analysis of inflammatory aortic lesions revealed the presence of tertiary lymphoid structures, composed of CXCR5+, CD4+, PD-1 and CD-20 cells in TA whereas such organized inflammatory infiltrates were uncommon in GCA aortic lesions. We demonstrated an increased peripheral B cell immune response in TA, as the number of peripheral B cells is increased in TA compared to GCA. CXCR5+ CD4+ T cells in TA patients have specific characteristics of TFH, as they help B cells to differentiate into memory B cells, to proliferate and to secrete IgG.

Conclusion: Patients with TA differ from patients with GCA in microarray gene analysis of purified CD4+ T cells. Our data provide evidence of the critical role of TFH in pathogenesis of inflammatory lesions in TA and suggest the role of antigenic trigger.

Disclosure: A. C. Desbois, None; V. Quiniou, None; P. Bruneval, None; N. Derian, None; A. Maciejewski-Duval, None; M. Garrido, None; C. Comarmond, None; J. Pouchot, None; M. Rosenzwajg, None; D. Klatzmann, None; P. Cacoub, None; D. Saadoun, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Desbois AC, Quiniou V, Bruneval P, Derian N, Maciejewski-Duval A, Garrido M, Comarmond C, Pouchot J, Rosenzwajg M, Klatzmann D, Cacoub P, Saadoun D. CXCR5+ CD4 T Cells Signature Differentiates Takayasu Arteritis from Giant Cell Arteritis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017; 69 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/cxcr5-cd4-t-cells-signature-differentiates-takayasu-arteritis-from-giant-cell-arteritis/. Accessed .

« Back to 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/cxcr5-cd4-t-cells-signature-differentiates-takayasu-arteritis-from-giant-cell-arteritis/