Influence of Methylprednisolone on Late Stages of Differentiation of Memory CD4+ T Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis: In Vitro Study

Abstract

We studied the effects of methylprednisolone (MP) on the late stages of differentiation of activated memory T cells in healthy donors and in patients with the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in vitro. It was found that MP exerts a suppressing effect on the number of CD4⁺ T cells expressing the activation (CD25) and co-stimulation (CD28) molecules in CD3⁺CD45RO⁺ cultures of healthy donors and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Assessment of the level of expression of the U2af1l4 and Gfi1 genes controlling the alternative splicing of the Ptprc gene demonstrated unidirectional but quantitatively different changes in health and in RA. Association between the level of expression of the U2af1l4 and Gfi1 genes and the number of CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO^–CD28^– cells in the populations of TCR-activated memory T cells in RA patients treated with MP confirms the hypothesis that glucocorticoids can stimulate the formation of terminally differentiated lymphocytes (CD4⁺CD28^–CD45RO^–, TEMRA), which are supposed to play the key role in the pathogenesis of RA.