Ning Gang, She Lanhui, Lu Lirong, Liu Ying, Zeng Yingfu, Yan Ying, Lin Chaoshuang
Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
Intranet of Guangzhou Woman and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou 510630, China.
Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:385378. doi: 10.1155/2015/385378. Epub 2015 Mar 1.
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been shown to inhibit T-cell responses in many diseases, but, in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients, MDSCs are still poorly studied. In this assay, we investigated the phenotype and frequency of two new populations of MDSCs denoted as monocytic and granulocytic MDSCs (M-MDSCs and G-MDSCs) in HCV infected patients and analyzed their clinical significance in these patients respectively. We found that the frequency of CD14(+)HLA-DR(-/low) cells (M-MDSCs) from HCV infected patients (mean ± SE, 3.134% ± 0.340%) was significantly increased when compared to healthy controls (mean ± SE, 1.764% ± 0.461%) (Z = -2.438, P = 0.015), while there was no statistical difference between the frequency of HLA-DR(-/low)CD33(+)CD11b(+)CD15(+) (G-MDSCs) of HCV infected patients and healthy donors (0.201% ± 0.038% versus 0.096% ± 0.026%, P > 0.05), which suggested that HCV infection could cause the proliferation of M-MDSCs instead of G-MDSCs. Besides, we found that the frequency of M-MDSCs in HCV infected patients had certain relevance with age (r = 0.358, P = 0.003); patients older than 40 years old group (mean ± SE, 3.673% ± 0.456%) had a significantly higher frequency of M-MDSCs than that of age less than 40 years old group (mean ± SE, 2.363% ± 0.482%) (Z = -2.685, P = 0.007). The frequency of M-MDSCs, however, had no correlation with HCV RNA loads, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and the level of liver inflammation degree.
髓系来源的抑制细胞（MDSCs）已被证明在许多疾病中会抑制T细胞反应，但在丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染患者中，对MDSCs的研究仍很少。在本试验中，我们调查了HCV感染患者中两种新的MDSCs群体，即单核细胞样和粒细胞样MDSCs（M-MDSCs和G-MDSCs）的表型和频率，并分别分析了它们在这些患者中的临床意义。我们发现，与健康对照（均值±标准误，1.764%±0.461%）相比，HCV感染患者中CD14(+)HLA-DR(-/低)细胞（M-MDSCs）的频率显著增加（均值±标准误，3.134%±0.340%）（Z=-2.438，P=0.015），而HCV感染患者与健康供体中HLA-DR(-/低)CD33(+)CDllb(+)CD15(+)（G-MDSCs）的频率无统计学差异（0.201%±0.038%对0.096%±0.026%，P>0.05），这表明HCV感染可导致M-MDSCs而非G-MDSCs增殖。此外，我们发现HCV感染患者中M-MDSCs的频率与年龄有一定相关性（r=0.358，P=0.003）；年龄大于40岁组（均值±标准误，3.673%±0.456%）的M-MDSCs频率显著高于年龄小于40岁组（均值±标准误，2.363%±0.482%）（Z=-2.685，P=0.007）。然而，M-MDSCs的频率与HCV RNA载量、天冬氨酸转氨酶（AST）、丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）及肝脏炎症程度均无相关性。
