TCR clonality analysis of intra-articular CD4 T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Homo sapiens

Recently, a subset of CD4 T cells that express high levels of programmed death-1 (PD-1) have been specifically identified in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and named peripheral helper T cells (Tph). Since PD-1 is expressed on T cells chronically stimulated with the antigens, we compared the sequences of TCR Vb chains of PD-1 high CD4T cells, PD-1 low/neg CD4T cells in the synovial fluid and peripheral blood memory CD4T cells of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.