%0 Journal Article %A Manae Kurokawa %A Tomohiro Kato %A Kayo Masuko-Hongo %A Shin-ichiro Ueda %A Tetsuji Kobata %A Mitsuo Okubo %A Tomoe Nishimaki %A Tatsuya Akaza %A Shin-ich Yoshino %A Reiji Kasukawa %A Kusuki Nishioka %A Kazuhiko Yamamoto %T Characterisation of T cell clonotypes that accumulated in multiple joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis %D 1999 %R 10.1136/ard.58.9.546 %J Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases %P 546-553 %V 58 %N 9 %X OBJECTIVE To investigate whether identical T cell clonotypes accumulate in multiple rheumatoid joints, the clonality of T cells that had infiltrated into synovial tissue (ST) samples simultaneously obtained from multiple joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was analysed.METHODS T cell receptor (TCR) β gene transcripts, amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction from ST and peripheral blood lymphocytes of five RA patients, were subjected to single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and DNA sequencing.RESULTS Approximately 40% of accumulated T cell clonotypes found in one joint of a patient were found in multiple joints in the same patient. Furthermore, identical amino acid sequences were found in TCR β junctional regions of these clonotypes from different patients with at least one HLA molecule match.CONCLUSIONS The T cell clonotypes accumulating in multiple rheumatoid joints may be involved in the perpetuation of polyarthritis by reacting to antigens common to these multiple joints. %U https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/58/9/546.full.pdf