Apoptosis-related changes in plasma membrane glycoconjugates of peripheral blood lymphocytes in rheumatoid arthritis.

Control of apoptosis (apo) is very important for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recently, we found that an appearance of specific cell surface GC is attributable to apo and developed lectin-induced agglutination test for apo evaluation. The aim of current study was to estimate changes in surface GC expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of normal healthy donors (NHD) and patients with RA, measured by cell agglutination with the galactose-specific VAA lectin and by lectin-cytochemical analysis.