Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) occurs two times more often in women than men. B cell depletion has been shown to be efficacious in treating RA. Our previous studies suggested that antigen presentation via B cells results in a sex-specific immune response in DR4 and DR4/DQ8 mice. Here we evaluated the mechanism of efficacy of the B cell depletion in treating arthritis-susceptible DQ8 mice. The data show that arthritic DQ8 mice treated with anti-CD20 antibody in therapeutic protocols show milder disease severity in females as compared to males, which is associated with decreased antibodies to citrullinated proteins and reduced levels of IL-23 and CCL5. Treatment led to significantly increased numbers of T regulatory and monocyte-derived suppressor F4/80 + Gr1hi cells in females as compared to male DQ8 mice. Our observations suggest that therapeutic strategies that target B cells may benefit females while functions of DCs might be relatively more important for men than women.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 10-19 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Clinical Immunology |
Volume | 178 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Collagen-induced arthritis
- Humanized mice
- Myeloid suppressor cells
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Rituximab
- T regulatory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology