Abstract
Much importance has been attached to immune abnormalities in the pathogenesis of Behçet's disease. This study was conducted to examine whether any of antigens (retinal santigen and/or cell wall antigen from streptococcus pyogenes) acts stimulatory in Behçet patients for the expression of IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) on the peripheral T cells and the production of soluble IL-2R. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity was also determined. The corresponding responses were much lower and often negligible, whereas their responses to PHA were consistently higher than those of the antigens. The results indicate that these antigens do not share common T cell-recognized epitopes. On the other hand, remarkable enhancement of ODC activity was demonstrated by PHA stimulation, combined with the evidence of increased induction of cell group with CD8+Leu15-. Cyclosporin A showed profound suppression of ODC activity on T cells from the patients, suggesting that ODC-suppressing may play an important role in the treatment of Behçet's disease in consequence of inhibitory effect against induction of allo-reactive cytotoxic T cells.
