Low dose methotrexate impaired T cell transmigration through down-regulating CXCR4 expression in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Abstract Background CXC chemokine CXCL12 is involved in the pathological development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) through abnormal migration of peripheral immune cells in the joint. Although low dose methotrexate (MTX) is clinically used to treat RA patients, CXCL12 signaling responses to MTX-mediated treatments is still controversial. Methods In this study, we examined the expression of CXCR4 (cognatic receptor for CXCL12) in peripheral T cells from RA patients and arthritis mice models received from low dose MTX therapies. The effects of low dose MTX on CXCR4 was further determined via both in vitro CD3 + T cells and Cxcr4 conditional knockout (CKO) arthritis mice models. Results Our clinical data shows that low dose MTX treatment was clinically associated with down-regulated expression of chemokine receptor CXCR4 on patient peripheral T cells. In vitro, low dose MTX significantly decreased cell transmigration through down-regulated CXCR4’s expression in CD3 + T cells. Consistently, CD3 + T cells treated with low dose MTX demonstrated an increased genomic hypermethylation across the promoter region of Cxcr4 gene. Furthermore, our preclinical studies showed that low dose MTX-mediated downregulation of CXCR4 significantly improved the pathological development of mouse arthritis models. Conditional disruption of the Cxcr4 gene in peripheral immune cells potentially alleviated inflammation of joints and lung tissue in the arthritis mice, though genetic modification itself did not change their clinical scores of arthritis. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the effect of low dose MTX treatment could serve to eliminate inflammation in RA patients through impairment of immune cell transmigration.