Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun:83:106451.
doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.106451. Epub 2020 Apr 2.

Alterations in peripheral blood B cells in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with renal insufficiency

Anna Wardowska  1 , Michał Komorniczak  2 , Aneta Skoniecka  3 , Barbara Bułło-Piontecka  2 , Katarzyna A Lisowska  4 , M Alicja Dębska-Ślizień  2 , Michał Pikuła  3
Affiliations
Free article

Alterations in peripheral blood B cells in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with renal insufficiency

Anna Wardowska et al. Int Immunopharmacol. 2020 Jun.
Free article

Abstract

Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of the autoimmune diseases, believed to be closely related to hyperactivity of B cells, overproduction of autoantibodies and immune complex formation and deposition in affected tissue. The autoreactive inflammation leads to multiorgan damage with kidney dysfunction in the forefront. Studies on lupus nephritis (LN), affecting the majority of SLE patients, are mainly focused on cells causing local inflammation. The aim of our work was to detect alterations in more accessible peripheral blood B cells in the course of SLE focusing on the influence of renal insufficiency (RI) on those parameters.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive flow cytometry analysis of B cell subpopulations, analyzed gene expression patterns with qPCR, and examined serum cytokine levels with multiplex cytokine/chemokine assay.

Results: We discovered distribution of specific B cell subsets, especially CD38+ cells, plasmablasts, associated with the presence and severity of the disease. Changes in expression of MBD2, DNMT1 and APRIL genes were not only associated with activity of SLE but also were significantly changed in patients with RI.

Conclusions: All these results shed new light on the role of circulating B cells, their subpopulations, function, and activity in the SLE with kidney manifestation.

Keywords: B cells; Flow cytometry; Gene expression; Renal insufficiency; Systemic lupus erythematosus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.