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Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 184, 1791-1800, Copyright © 1996 by Rockefeller University Press
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E Scotet, J David-Ameline, MA Peyrat, A Moreau-Aubry, D Pinczon, A Lim, J Even, G Semana, JM Berthelot, R Breathnach, M Bonneville and E Houssaint
Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale U211, Institut de Biologie, Nantes, France.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a multistep disorder associated with autoimmune features of yet unknown etiology. Implication of viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis has been suspected on the basis of several indirect observations, but thus far, a direct link between EBV and rheumatoid arthritis has not been provided. Here we show that a large fraction of T cells infiltrating affected joints from a patient with chronic rheumatoid arthritis recognizes two EBV transactivators (BZLF1 and BMLF1) in a major histocompatibility complex-restricted fashion. Responses to these EBV antigens by synovial lymphocytes from several other chronic rheumatoid arthritis patients were readily detectable. Thus these results suggest a direct contribution of EBV to chronic rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis. They also demonstrate for the first time the occurrence of T cell responses against EBV transactivating factors, which might be central in the control of virus reactivation.
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