Surface Marker Allows New Diagnostic Approaches for Sarcoidosis

This disease, which often leads to damage of the patients' lungs, is caused by a strong immune reaction and a concomitant formation of nodules in the tissue. The underlying mechanisms are still unclear but scientists are convinced that monocytes play a critical role.

The investigators mixed blood with directly conjugated monoclonal antibodies for 20 minutes on ice in the dark. Samples were lysed in a Q-prep workstation (Beckman Coulter, Brea CA, USA) including 0.1% formaldehyde fixation. Equal volumes of counting beads were added and samples were run on a FACSCalibur (Becton-Dickinson; Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) for 4-color-analysis. A total of 5,000 classical monocytes were acquired per sample.

The team showed that the cell surface marker 6-sulfo LacNAc (slan) can define slan-positive CD14+CD16++ non-classical monocytes and slan-negative CD14++CD16+ intermediate monocytes. Gene expression profiling confirms that slan-negative intermediate monocytes show highest expression levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II genes, while a differential ubiquitin signature is a novel feature of the slan approach. Using the slan approach they showed that slan-negative intermediate monocytes are increased in sarcoidosis and slan-positive non-classical monocytes are depleted in hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS). The study was published on October 6, 2015, in the journal Blood.

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