The expression level of the co-stimulatory molecule CD137 in peripheral blood and synovia of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its clinical significance

To investigate the level of the co-stimulatory molecule CD137 in peripheral blood and synovia of patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA),the CD3+CD4+CD137+T cell and the level of sCD137 in the blood of 32 RA patients and 34 healthy controls and in the synovia of 10 RA patients and 5 OA patients were detected by flow cytometry and ELISA respectively.Compared with the normal control,the CD3+CD4+CD137+T cell and the level of the sCD137 from patients with both active and inactive RA were significantly high(P0.05).The level of sCD137 in the peripheral blood was continuously high,while the expression of CD3+CD4+CD137+T was predominantly lowered in the inactive stage.The sCD137and CD3+CD4+CD137+T cell level in synoviae of RA patients were positively correlated with ESR,CRP and Stroke data(P0.05);but the CD3+CD4+CD137+T cell level was not correlated with the level of sCD137 in the blood of RA.From these observation,it is evident that the inflammatrory reactions in the joints of RA patients may be related to the immune expressions in their synovial.