Plaque Forming Cell Technique for Counting IgG and IgM antibody-secreting cells in peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Antibody Secreting cells are playing a central role in pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases especially in rheumatoid arthritis. There are few reports describe a method can estimate the number of antibody secreting cells in vitro spontaneously. Here were modified the classical method of plaque forming assay to study the number of IgG and IgM secreting cells [Plaque forming cells (PFCs)] without external stimulators in vitro in peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, the relationship between the IgG and IgM concentrations and number of PFC-IgG and IgM (without external stimulators) was studied. The significant increase of IgG as well as IgM antibody secreting cells [plaque forming cell (PFC) - IgG and IgM) was seen in peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (P<0.001) as compared with healthy control group. These findings were associated with high levels of IgG and IgM concentration in peripheral blood of patients. The current present study besides providing a modified method to detect IgG or IgM secreting cells (PFC) in vitro, it also proved that the high level of IgG and IgM in peripheral blood is associated with spontaneous activity of B-cells.