Secondary outcomes included the modified Rodnan skin thickness score (MRSS), the Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire, assessment of organ-based disease, serum levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor, collagen propeptides (N propeptide of type I [PINP] and type III collagen), and tissue levels of messenger RNA for procollagens I and III and for TGFbeta1 and TGFbeta2.
In view of the documented perivascular mononuclear cell infiltration in the involved organs in scleroderma (SSc) and the reported accumulation of gammadelta-T cells in SSc skin and lung, we evaluated gammadelta-T cell interaction with endothelial cells (EC) in vitro. gammadelta- and alphabeta-T cells were isolated from BPMN of SSc patients with early diffuse disease and of matched control subjects by an immunomagnetic method after stimulation with mycobacterium lysate and interleukin-2 for 2 weeks.