The mRNA levels of TGF-beta Type II receptor splice variants in monocytes are associated with disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

ALEJANDRA CARREA; RICARDO A. DEWEY; MATIAS ADAN PREISEGGER; JORGE VELASCO ZAMORA

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY

CLINICAL & EXPER RHEUMATOLOGY

Año: 2020

0392-856X

In Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients, TGF-β exerts a singular effect on lymphocytes, macrophages, and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Moreover, evidences indicate that TGF-β1 stimulation affects the expression levels of TGF-β receptors. Therefore, we analyzed in different leukocyte subpopulations, whether the mRNA abundance of TGFBR2 splice variants might be related to RA. To check that, we isolated different leukocyte subpopulations from peripheral blood from 9 healthy control volunteers and 9 RA patients, matched by gender and age (cohort 1), and 8 additional RA patients (cohort 2). Subsequently, we quantified, by RT-qPCR, the mRNA relative abundance of TGFBR2 splice variants (namely TGFBR2A and TGFBR2B). The mRNA levels were correlated, by Spearman´s rank-order correlation test, with clinical and bio- chemical determinations of RA patients. Here we report that the mRNA abundance of TGFBR2 splice variants in monocytes show changes linked to RA disease activity.