Bone marrow CD34+ progenitor cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients support spontaneous transformation of peripheral blood B cells from healthy individuals.

We show that bone marrow (BM) CD34+ progenitor cells from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have the capacity to support spontaneous transformation of peripheral blood B cells. CD34+ cells purified from BM blood from eight RA patients and eight osteoarthritis (OA) patients were expanded with granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) for 4-6 weeks. GM-CSF-stimulated BM CD34+ cells from three of eight RA patients, but none from seven OA patients, gave rise to spontaneous transformation of highly purified B cells of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-seronegative healthy donors. GM-CSF-stimulated BM CD34+ cells from four of six RA patients and from one of four OA patients also supported the spontaneous transformation of peripheral blood B cells from EBV-seropositive healthy donors. All the transformed B cell lines were positive for EBV-DNA as determined by PCR. Neither GM-CSF-stimulated BM CD34+ cells alone nor highly purified B cells alone gave rise to spontaneously transformed B cell lines. These results suggest that the capacity of BM CD34+ cells to support survival of B cells might contribute to the pathogenesis of RA by sustaining abnormal B cell responses.