Lymphocyte-endothelial cell interactions in multiple sclerosis: disease specificity and relationship to circulating tumour necrosis factor-α and soluble adhesion molecules

This study addressed two questions: first, whether the supranormal adherence of blood lymphocytes from patients with multiple sderosis (MS) to endothelial cell monolayers treated with tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα) was a feature common to other inflammatory disorders; and second, whether the adherence properties of blood lymphocytes from MS patients were related to changes in disease activity and to levels of circulating TNFα and soluble adhesion molecules. In the first part of the investigation, lymphocytes from I 4 patients with MS were more adherent to TNFα-treated endothelial cells (P < 0.01) than those from healthy controls, whereas the adherence properties of lymphocytes from 12 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, eight patients with psoriasis and ten patients with neurological diseases other than MS were normal. In the second phase of the work, measurement of the adhesive properties of lymphocytes isolated at monthly intervals from a further six MS patients over a 5 - 8 month period, found that ch...