Phenotype of Innate Immune Cells in Uveitis Associated with Axial Spondyloarthritis- and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis-associated Uveitis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To analyze circulating immune cells in patients with anterior uveitis (AU) associated to axial spondyloarthritis (SpA), or juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods: Venous blood samples were collected from healthy controls (n = 16), and either SpA (n = 19) or JIA (n = 23) patients with associated anterior uveitis (AU) during active flare, or after ≥3 months of inactivity. Frequencies of CD56⁺, MHC-I⁺, and S100A9⁺ monocytes, CCR7⁺ dendritic cells, CD56^+dim natural killer (NK) cells and CD3⁺CD56^bright T-cells were analyzed via flow cytometry. Serum S100A8/A9 levels were determined via ELISA.

Results: SpA patients showed a reduced frequency of CD56^+dim NK cells during uveitis activity, a constitutively activated monocyte phenotype, and elevated S100A8/A9 serum levels. In contrast, JIAU patients showed elevated frequencies of CD56⁺ monocytes and CCR7⁺ DC.

Conclusion: Phenotype of peripheral immune cells differ between patients, probably contributing to different courses of acute onset AU in SpA and insidious onset AU in JIAU patients.

Abbreviations: AU: anterior uveitis, AR: arthritis, JIA: juvenile idiopathic arthritis, SpA: axial spondyloarthritis

KEYWORDS:

• HLA-B27
• axial spondyloarthritis
• juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• uveitis
• monocytes

Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Dr. med. C. Heinz and the medical team of the department of ophthalmology at St. Franziskus Hospital, B. Stratmann, L. Jacubeck, E. Attenberger, B. Zurek-Imhoff. We thank Dr. med. R. Walscheid (MVZ for laboratory medicine, Koblenz, Germany) for conducting the HLA-B27 PCR analysis.

Authors´ contributions

MK, KW, DB, MB, TL, and AH designed the study and wrote the manuscript. MK, BL, DB, MB, KL, TV performed the experiments and analyzed the data. KW, GG, TR, and AH collected the peripheral blood samples and provided clinical data.

Competing interests

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

The current study was in part funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) He 1877/19-1; part of the FOR 2240 program (Lymph) Angiogenesis and cellular immunity in inflammatory diseases of the eye/project 8, uveitis.