A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELL PROLIFERATTVE RESPONSES TO BACTERIAL ANTIGENS IN REACTTVE ARTHRITIS

Reactive arthritis (ReA) is a sterile inflammatory arthritiswhich usually occurs after an enteric or genitourinary infection.In recent years it has been recognized that synovial fluid mononuclearcells from an affected joint demonstrate marked proliferativeresponses if incubated with preparations of the organism triggeringthe arthritis; peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) responsesare typically much smaller. One interpretation of this findingis that recognition of the triggering organism is enhanced withinthe joint compared to peripheral blood, but it could also beargued that the PBMC responses are actually depressed duringacute arthritis. We have examined this possibility in a longitudinalstudy of PBMC proliferative responses in patients with ReA.In this study we have demonstrated that PBMC proliferative responsesto the triggering organism were indeed depressed during acuteReA, and showed a significant increase after recovery from thearthritis. These findings also applied to PBMC recognition ofthe recall antigen PPD, and to the response to IL-2. KEY WORDS: T cells, Reactive arthritis