Perforin level in CD4 T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Anna Kozłowska (1) , Paweł Hrycaj (2) , Jan K. Łącki (3) , Paweł Piotr Jagodziński (1)

1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
2 Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
3 Institute of Rheumatology

CD4 T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) exhibit increased expression of various proteins contributing to defective function of CD4 T cells. We evaluated the transcript and protein levels of perforin (PRF1) in CD4 T cells from SLE patients ( = 41) and healthy individuals ( = 34). The CD4 T cells were obtained by a positive biomagnetic separation system. The amounts of mRNA were determined by reverse transcription and real-time quantitative PCR. The protein levels in the CD4 T cells were evaluated by Western blotting analysis. We observed significantly higher levels of PRF1 protein ( = 0.013) in SLE CD4 T cells than in controls. There was no significant increase in PRF1 transcript levels ( = 0.908) in CD4 T cells from SLE patients as compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, we did not observe a correlation between PRF1 transcript and protein levels in SLE CD4 T cells and disease activity expressed by the SLEDAI scale. We confirmed previous observations that demonstrated higher levels of PRF1 protein in CD4 T cells from SLE patients. However, we did not find a correlation between PRF1 transcripts and proteins in CD4 T cells and SLE disease activity.

Mots clés: SLE; Perforina; CD4 T cells

Anna Kozłowska, Paweł Hrycaj, Jan K. Łącki, Paweł Piotr Jagodziński. Perforin level in CD4 T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatology International, 2010, 30 (12), pp.1627-1633. ⟨10.1007/s00296-009-1329-1⟩. ⟨hal-00568323⟩