Clinical Study of Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subsets in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Complicated with Osteoporosis

Ting Cheng¹, Sheng-xiao Zhang ², Xiao-qing Liu ¹, Jia Wang ¹, Chong Gao ³ and Xiao-feng Li ¹, ¹The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China (People's Republic), ²The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China (People's Republic), ³Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Meeting: 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting

Keywords: B cells and T-Regulatory Cells, osteoporosis, Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

Session Information

Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Title: RA – Diagnosis, Manifestations, & Outcomes Poster III: Comorbidities

Session Type: Poster Session (Tuesday)

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

Background/Purpose: Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is an autoimmune disease mainly manifested by aggressive polyarthritis.The incidence of osteoporosis(OP) has risen and the risk of fracture has further increased in parallel with the prolongation of the disease course,which seriously affects the prognosis and the quality of patients’lives.The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of OP in patients with RA and the status of peripheral lymphocyte subsets.

Methods: A total of 734 patients with RA and 81 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled in this study. All peripheral lymphocyte subsets of these participants were assessed by flow cytometry. Patients were divided to pure RA group and RA-OP group according to their bone mineral density (BMD) of lumbar or bilateral hip and the history of fragility fracture for further comparation of the general clinical data as well as the status of peripheral lymphocyte subsets among these participants.

Results: Among 181 (24.93%) RA-OP patients, there were more female (P=0.021), suggesting female is more susceptible to develop OP. Compared with pure RA patients, not only an older age (P< 0.001) and a longer disease duration(P< 0.001) but also a higher disease activity was observed in RA-OP patients. Moreover, RA-OP patients suffered more joints swelling and pain (P< 0.05) as well as ESR(P< 0.001) and CRP(P=0.014) (Table 1). Compared with those of HC and RA group, the number of Th17 in RA-OP patients was significantly increased (P< 0.05), while Treg cells decreased (p< 0.05), leading to a higher ratio of Th17/Tregs (P< 0.05) (Table 2). In addition, the level of B cells in the pure RA or RA-OP group was significantly reduced, and this alteration was more obvious in patients with OP.

Conclusion: RA patients have a high incidence of OP, which was related to gender, age，disease duration and disease activity. Notably, immune disorder caused by Th17/Treg imbalance may also contribute to OP in RA patients. In addition, total B cells trended to decrease. Anti-osteoporosis treatment and immune regulation might be considered at the early stage of disease.

Figure1:The levels of B、Th17、Treg cells and the ratio of Th17/Treg among HC, pure RA and RA-OP group.-*P＜0.05；**P＜0.01；***P＜0.001-.

Disclosure: T. Cheng, None; S. Zhang, None; X. Liu, None; J. Wang, None; C. Gao, None; X. Li, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Cheng T, Zhang S, Liu X, Wang J, Gao C, Li X. Clinical Study of Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subsets in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Complicated with Osteoporosis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019; 71 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/clinical-study-of-peripheral-blood-lymphocyte-subsets-in-patients-with-rheumatoid-arthritis-complicated-with-osteoporosis/. Accessed .

« Back to 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/clinical-study-of-peripheral-blood-lymphocyte-subsets-in-patients-with-rheumatoid-arthritis-complicated-with-osteoporosis/