| Follicular helper T(Tfh)cells are recognized as a distinct CD4+ helper T-cell subset,which locates in B cell follicles in lymphoid tissues,improves B-cell activation and production of specific antibody responses.In the physiophathological process of autoimmune diseases,the Tfh cells can migrate to non-lymphoid tissue,form ectopic germinal center in lymphoid tissue,complete antibody-affinity maturation and Ig isotype switch,and maintain a long time humoral immunity.Rheumatoid Arthritis(RA)is an autoimmune disease,which can mainly damage synovial tissue.The basic pathological changes of this disease contain chronic inflammation of the synovium,synovial hyperemia,edema,exudation,inflammatory cell infiltration and granulation tissue formation,cartilage erosion and joint destruction.Recent studies have showed that increased circulating Tfh cell was found in RA patients.In our present study,we used immunohistochemistry,triple-fluorescence immunostaining,and con-focal scanning methods to characterize the expression and the localization of Tfh cells in rheumatoid synovium tissues from RA patients.We used these technologies to detect the localization and expression of Tfh in patients with RA,osteoarthritis and normal controls knee synovial cell.Our results showed that specific staining of CD4,CXCR5 and ICOS could be found on infiltrating immune cells in rheumatoid synovium tissues,and the triple-fluorescence immunostaining and the confocal laser scanning showed that the immunolocalization of CD4+CXCR5+ICOS+T cells(Tfh cells)could be found in the rheumatoid synovium tissues,whereas these signals were absent in osteoarthritis(OA)synovium and normal synovium tissues. |
