Cell activation, PD-1 expression and in vitro cytokine production in patients with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus.

Background: Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (jSLE) is known to be more severe and with a higher frequency of renal and central nervous system impairment when compared to systemic lupus erythematosus in adults. The study of immunological characteristics of jSLE patients might help to envisage better treatment strategies to reduce the burden of the disease.

Objective: To characterize peripheral lymphocytes, assessing activation markers, and PD-1 expression on T cells; to evaluate in vitro cytokine expression upon stimulation in jSLE patients and age-matched controls.

Methodology: Eighteen jSLE patients on low disease activity and 25 matched healthy adolescents were evaluated for immune activation and PD-1 expression on peripheral blood lymphocytes by flow cytometry. Twenty-one cytokines were assessed by X-MAP technology after in vitro stimulation of peripheral blood with phytohemagglutinin.

Results: jSLE patients had lower numbers of CD4 T, CD8 T, B, and NK cells; higher central memory CD8 T cell percentages were noted in jSLE adolescents in comparison with controls ( = 0.014). B cells subsets showed a higher percentage of exhausted memory subset than controls ( = 0.014). The expression of PD-1 on CD4 T and CD8 T cells did not show relevant changes in jSLE adolescents. After stimulation of peripheral blood, cell supernatant of jSLE patients showed a trend to lower concentrations of IL-10 (=0.080) and higher concentrations of IL-23 ( = 0.063) than controls.

Conclusions: jSLE patients on low disease activity maintain lymphopenia of all subsets, with a B cell profile of exhaustion. Upon in vitro stimulation, peripheral blood cell supernatant showed a shift to IL-23, suggesting a role of inhibitors of this cytokine as another potential therapeutic target for those patients.