T‐cell subsets in lesions of systemic and discoid lupus erythematosus

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Abstract
In 6 patients with untreated systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the progressive stage, and in 6 with discoid lupus erythematosus (OLE), an analysis of inflammatory infiltrates was performed in situ using the avidin‐biotin‐peroxidase complex (ABC) method with monoclonal antibodies. In all patients, over 75% of the infiltrates reacted with the pan T‐cell antibody OKT3, but only sporadically with that of B‐cell OKB7. In addition, a large number of the infiltrates were OKT8‐positive, indicating that they were in an activated state. Many OKT8‐positive cells were seen infiltrating the epidermis especially in the vicinity of basal keratinocytes. Staining for T‐cell subsets revealed that the proportion of OKT8‐positive cells (suppressor/ cytotoxic) was from 2 to 3 fold higher than that of OKT4‐positive cells (helper/inducer) in lesions of SLE. On the contrary, in OLE, a predominance of OKT4‐pos‐itive cells (the OKT4/OKT8 ratio was from 1:1 to 3:1) was observed. Thus, our results provide further evidence that these 2 main types of LE show quite contrary findings on immunohistochemical analysis of T‐cell subsets, and that besides the humoral immune mechanism, the cell‐mediated immune mechanism may be involved in the pathogenesis of these disorders.