Subsets of lymphocytes in synovial fluids of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RASF-Ly) along with lymphocytes in peripheral bloods of normal subjects (Healthy-Ly) were studied.
Percent of OKT-3+cells (P<0.01), OKT-4+cells (P<0.01), OKT-8+cells (P<0.05) and OK-Ial+cells (P<0.01) of RASF-Ly were significantly higher than those of Healthy-Ly. Therefore, we examined the correlation these percentage of subsets. Positive correlation were observed in RASF-Ly between percentage of OKT-8+cells (P<0.01) or Leu-7+cells (p<0.01) and that of OK-Ial+cells and also between percentage of OKT-8+cells and that of Leu-7+cells of RAST-Ly (p<0.01) . Since OK-Ial represents a marker of activated T cells, both OKT-8+cells and Leu-7+cells in RASF-Ly seemed to be activated and Leu-7+cells seemed also to be immature. NK activity of RASF-Ly was significantly lower than that of Healthy-Ly (p<0.01), whereas ADCC activity of RASF-Ly was similar to that of Healthy-Ly.
