Sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is an enigmatic disease resistant to immunomodulatory treatment and featuring autoimmune and degenerative aspects: clonally expanded CD8+ T cells focally infiltrate uniformly HLA-I+ myofibers that harbor beta-amyloid deposits. In a non-hypothesis-driven approach, CD8+ T cell-attacked and non-attacked myofibers were compared on the transcriptional level. To this end, cytosol of such attacked and non-attacked myofibers was isolated independently using laser microdissection. For comparison, healthy tissue was investigated. After linear transcriptome amplification, a transcriptome analysis was performed using microarray hybridization and quantitative PCR. RNA expression analysis was verified on the protein level by immunohistochemistry.
The most prominently regulated molecular patterns were those of antigen processing and presentation. HLA-I upregulation was observed on both attacked and non-attacked myofibers, while myofibers from healthy controls did not express HLA-I. HLA-II were overexpressed in attacked myofibers compared to non-attacked myofibers and healthy controls. A number of transcripts inducible by IFN-γ, as well as the IFN-γ receptor, were specifically induced in attacked myofibers. IFN-γ receptor protein expression on myofiber membranes was demonstrated using confocal microscopy. It was shown that IFN-γ receptor protein expression on myofiber membranes correlated with the extent of inflammatory CD8+ T cell infiltrates surrounding the myofibers. The differential upregulation of IFN-γ signaling is thus likely related to local inflammation, whereas the ubiquitous HLA-I upregulation is triggered further upstream by as-yet-unknown mechanisms.
In the unbiased global transcriptome analysis, RER1, a chaperone recently discovered to play a role in the assembly of γ-secretase, was statistically highly significantly downregulated in myofibers from patients with sIBM compared to control myofibers. This result prompted a case-control study of 36 patients on the transcriptional and the protein level, comparing RER1 expression levels in different inflammatory and degenerative myopathies. RER1 was found to be strongly downregulated in patients with sIBM, while being strongly expressed in healthy muscle and in DM, confirming the microarray results. Moreover, RER1 was downregulated in MFM, a degenerative myopathy featuring amyloid deposits, and, strikingly, PM, a disease which, while resembling sIBM, so far has been considered a standalone entity and a purely inflammatory condition. RER1 downregulation might be an early, sensitive molecular marker in diseases where amyloid biosynthesis plays a role, such as sIBM, and possibly PM, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
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Sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) is an enigmatic disease resistant to immunomodulatory treatment and featuring autoimmune and degenerative aspects: clonally expanded CD8+ T cells focally infiltrate uniformly HLA-I+ myofibers that harbor beta-amyloid deposits. In a non-hypothesis-driven approach, CD8+ T cell-attacked and non-attacked myofibers were compared on the transcriptional level. To this end, cytosol of such attacked and non-attacked myofibers was isolated independently using laser...
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