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Egyptian Rheumatology and Rehabilitation
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TCR-CD3ζ gene expression profile in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and correlation with disease activity

Egyptian Rheumatology and Rehabilitation volume 46, pages 262–268 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

To measure the T-cell receptor-CD3 zeta chain (TCR-CD3ζ) gene expression profile in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Patients and methods

A case—control study on 150 consecutive RA patients diagnosed according to 2010 ACR/EULAR criteria and 150 matched healthy controls without a family history of RA or other autoimmune diseases. RA patients with other autoimmune diseases, viral hepatitis B or C, malignancy or hematological disorders were excluded from the study. All participants were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, assessment of disease activity (in RA patients) using Disease Activity Score-28 and Health Assessment Questionnaire, routine laboratory investigations, inflammatory marker levels, serological tests, as well as molecular analysis for TCR-CD3ζ mRNA expression by quantitative real-time PCR.

Results

TCR-CD3ζ gene expression was significantly lower in RA cases than in controls (P<0.05). Expression of TCR-CD3ζ has shown a significant negative correlation with RA disease duration, rheumatoid factor, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P<0.05) in RA cases. The level of TCR-CD3ζ also showed a significantly less expression in patients with positive rheumatoid factor.

Conclusion

Our results demonstrated a lower expression of TCR-CD3ζ in RA patients than in healthy controls. We suggested that CD247 gene downregulation might contribute in the susceptibility to RA and help understanding the pathways responsible for deficient T-cell responses in RA patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

    Abeer Abdelati & Ahmed Ismail

  2. Department of Physical Medicine, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

    Rehab Elnemr (Lecturer Department of Physical Medicine)

  3. Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

    Marwa Gamal-Eldeen

Authors
  1. Abeer Abdelati
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  2. Rehab Elnemr
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  3. Ahmed Ismail
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  4. Marwa Gamal-Eldeen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rehab Elnemr.

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Abdelati, A., Elnemr, R., Ismail, A. et al. TCR-CD3ζ gene expression profile in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and correlation with disease activity. Egypt Rheumatol Rehabil 46, 262–268 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4103/err.err_14_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/err.err_14_19

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