Impaired Peripheral Th1 CD4+ T Cell Response to Escherichia coli Proteins in Patients with Crohn’s Disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis

• Published in: Journal of clinical immunology 2011-12, Vol.31 (6), p.998-1009
• Main Authors: Ergin, Asgar, Syrbe, Uta, Scheer, Rebecca, Thiel, Andreas, Adam, Thomas, Büssow, Konrad, Duchmann, Rainer, Zeitz, Martin, Sieper, Joachim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive Immunity; Adolescent; Adult; Ankylosing spondylitis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Blood; CD4 antigen; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - metabolism; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - pathology; CD40 Ligand - metabolism; Cell Movement; Child; Child, Preschool; Crohn Disease - immunology; Crohn Disease - physiopathology; Crohn's disease; Digestive tract; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli Proteins - immunology; Female; Helper cells; Humans; Immune response; Immunology; Immunosuppression; Infant; Infectious Diseases; Inflammation; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Internal Medicine; Intestine; Intestines - pathology; Lymphocytes T; Male; Medical Microbiology; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - immunology; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - physiopathology; Th1 Cells - immunology; Th1 Cells - metabolism; Th1 Cells - pathology
• ISSN: 0271-9142; 1573-2592
• DOI: 10.1007/s10875-011-9575-x

Background To clarify the impact of T cell responses towards enteric antigens for chronic intestinal inflammation, we determined T helper 1 reactivity towards conserved Escherichia coli proteins in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and healthy individuals and patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), who also often show microscopic inflammatory lesions within the gut or even develop overt inflammatory bowel disease. Methods We determined the frequency of IFNγ+CD40L+ cells/CD4+ T cells after stimulation of whole blood with pools of E. coli proteins. Results The E. coli -specific Th1 response was significantly reduced in CD patients and to a lower extent also in AS patients. Conclusions E. coli is a target for polyclonal Th1 responses in healthy individuals. The impairment of these responses in CD and AS patients might be due to recruitment of enterobacteria-specific Th1 cells to the gut or might reflect inadequate priming of adaptive immune response.