Browsing by Author "Figueroa, F"

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    Association of primary antiphospholipid syndrome with primary adrenal insufficiency
    (J RHEUMATOL PUBL CO, 1996) Gonzalez, G; Gutierrez, M; Ortiz, M; Tellez, R; Figueroa, F; Jacobelli, S
    The association of primary adrenal insufficiency with antiphospholipid antibodies is usually reported in the context of adrenal thrombosis or hemorrhage. We describe a 35-year-old woman who developed a primary antiphospholipid syndrome (spontaneous abortion, thrombocytopenia, and cerebrovascular occlusion) in association with primary adrenal insufficiency without evidence of suprarenal hemorrhage or thrombosis.
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    Selective depletion of Vβ2+CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood from rheumatic heart disease patients
    (2003) Carrión, F; Fernandez, M; Iruretagoyena, M; Andrade, LEC; Odete-Hilário, M; Figueroa, F
    Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and its chronic valvular sequelae are the delayed consequence of a pharyngeal infection with group A Streptococcus (GAS). Several GAS proteins have been shown to be superantigens, raising the possibility that the expansion or deletion of T cells expressing specific Vbeta regions might play a role in the pathogenesis of ARF or chronic rheumatic heart disease (RHD). We therefore analyzed by four-color flow cytometry, the V repertoire on CD3, CD4 and CD8 T cells from four ARF patients, 10 RHD patients and also nine healthy controls. A selective depletion of Vbeta2+ T cells was found only in the CD8 subset of chronic RHD patients. This is of interest since a number of GAS superantigens exert their effects on Vbeta2+ cells and because only CD8+ T cells from ARF and RHD patients undergo anergy in response to GAS superantigens. Our results suggests that an ongoing immune process is present in RHD patients and that CD8+ T cells may have an important immunoregulatory role in the pathogenesis of the disease. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.