الفهرس 
Systemic Lupus ErythematosusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Systemic lupus erythmatosus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can be fatal, although with recent medical advances, fatalities are becoming increasingly rare. The course of the disease is unpredictable, with periods of illness alternating with remissions. Target tissue damage is caused primarily by pathogenic autoantibodies and immune complexes.
In SLE, B cells’ abnormalities have been described where there is aberrant survival of autoreactive autoantibody producing cells in the periphery. Also, there is enhanced B cell activation resulting from increased signaling responses after ligation of surface receptors, and diminished activity of inhibitory signaling pathways. The percentage of plasma cells and their absolute number in the peripheral blood of patients with SLE might increase during active disease, as a result of either rapid generation or prolonged survival of these cells. In addition, disturbances in homing behavior or B cell trafficking can be considered as possible causes for the observed expansion of this B cell population in the peripheral blood of patients with active SLE.
The CD27 molecule is involved in the late-stage differentiation of B cells by providing a key signal for the maturation of B cells into plasma cells. On the basis of CD27 cell-surface expression, peripheral blood B cells can be divided into three different subpopulations: memory B cells(CD27+/CD19+/CD20+), Naive B cells CD27-/CD19+/CD20+), and peripheral blood B lymphocytes with high levels of CD27 (CD27high/CD19+/CD20-) which are characterized as plasma cells (PCs).
In flowcytometry, CD27 is used as a marker to assess the number of circulating B cells and B cell subsets. Thus its use may facilitate assessing the abnormalities in the distribution of CD27+ B cell subsets that might prove to be of clinical utility in assessing disease activity in SLE.
So, the aim of this study was to determine the correlation between SLE disease activity and CD27 high plasma cells and to assess the value of these cells in monitoring the patients.
The present study included thirty patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and twenty age and sex matched healthy volunteers who served as a control group. The patients were fulfilling the 1982 revised criteria of the American college of Rheumatology and were assessed by the SLEDAI (systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index). They were further divided into 2 subgroups according to disease activity, the first subgroup included patients with low activity having SLEDAI score from 0-8 (n=15) and the second subgroup included patients with high activity having SLEDAI score more than 8(n=15).
On comparing B cell subsets of patients’ subgroups, the present study showed a highly statistical significant difference in the percent and absolute number of CD27high plasma cells between patients with high activity compared to those of low activity.
Also, the current study could find a significant correlation between the level of anti-ds DNA titre and the percent of CD27high plasma cells and as well between the SLEDI score and the percent of the same subset of cells.
However, the study couldn’t demonstrate any correlation between the percent of CD27high plasma cells and patient’s age, type of therapy or any of the other laboratory data of the patients apart from the DNA titre.