Stimulation of synovial fluid mononuclear cells with the human 65-kD heat shock protein or with live enterobacteria leads to preferential expansion of TCR-γδ+ lymphocytes

SUMMARY T lymphocyte responses to heterologous or self 65-kD heat shock protein (hsp) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of various forms of arthritis. To delineate the relationship of 65-kD hsp to different synovial fluid (SF) T cell subsets, we stimulated synovial fluid (SFMC) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with different inflammatory rheumatic diseases and from healthy controls with human or mycobacterial 65-kD hsp, tetanus toxoid (TT), heat-killed or live Yersinia enterocotitica. Phenotyping of the resulting T cell lines revealed an increase of up to 97% TCR-γδ+ lymphocytes in the 65-kD hsp-stimulatcd SF-derived lines. This expansion of TCR-γδ+ cells w…