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. 1998 Mar;111(3):536-40.
doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2249.1998.00539.x.

Circulating T lymphocyte subsets in coeliac disease (CoD) patients and healthy family members

T O Kerttula  1 , K Holm, J Partanen, A Polvi, M Mäki
Affiliations

Circulating T lymphocyte subsets in coeliac disease (CoD) patients and healthy family members

T O Kerttula et al. Clin Exp Immunol. 1998 Mar.

Abstract

Increased proportions of circulating antigen-primed CD45RO+ TCR gammadelta cells have been found in untreated CoD patients. As certain immunological features are now found in both CoD and healthy persons carrying the HLA DQ2 heterodimer, we sought to establish whether healthy members of the families of CoD patients who are positive for HLA DQ2 and also have increased densities of TCR gammadelta intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) in their small bowel mucosa have elevated levels of circulating TCR gammadelta memory cells. Peripheral blood T cells were analysed by flow cytometry in 22 patients with CoD and 16 healthy family members. Untreated CoD patients had higher percentages of circulating CD45RO+ TCR gammadelta cells and CD45RO+ Vdelta1+ cells than healthy family members. On the other hand, the amount of circulating Vdelta1+ lymphocytes was lower in patients with CoD compared with healthy family members. In contrast, no differences were found between HLA DQ2+ and HLA DQ2- healthy family members in respect of circulating TCR gammadelta cell subsets. The change in circulating TCR gammadelta cell subsets found in patients with CoD is thus a consequence of an ongoing immunological process which diminishes on a gluten-free diet rather than a phenomenon directly caused by DQ2. These changes in peripheral blood are not found in healthy individuals who have the same HLA alleles DQA1*0501 and DQB1*0201 encoding the HLA DQ2 and who also have increased densities of TCR gammadelta IEL in their otherwise normal jejunal mucosa.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Frequency of Vδ1+ lymphocytes (a), the absolute counts of Vδ1+ lymphocytes (b), frequency of CD45RO expression on TCR γδ cells (c) and frequency of CD45RO expression on Vδ1+ lymphocytes (d) in peripheral blood of untreated CoD (utCoD), treated CoD (tCoD) and healthy family members who are either positive (DQ2+) or negative (DQ2−) for the HLA DQ2 heterodimer. In Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance P = 0.031 in (a), P = 0.006 in (b), P = 0.010 in (c) and P = 0.014 in (d). Intergroup statistics are shown: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; NS, not significant.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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