Zare Hamid-Reza, Habibagahi Mojtaba, Vahdati Akbar, Habibagahi Zahra
Department of Biology, Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran, e-mail:
Iran J Immunol. 2015 Sep;12(3):166-75.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suffer from wide ranges of autoimmune reactions in joints. The mechanism of which is generally unknown and maybe associated with Treg deregulation.
To compare the frequency of nTregs in peripheral blood of patients with active rheumatoid disease with healthy individuals.
Twenty five newly diagnosed patients with active RA disease were selected based on the clinical and laboratory criteria before starting their therapies. Treg cells in peripheral blood samples were enumerated by immune staining and flowcytometry analysis.
Clinical and laboratory results were in favor of active disease in all the studied patients although they showed variations in Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28). Compared to the healthy controls, RA patients had significantly lower frequency of CD4+CD25hi or CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ natural regulatory T cells. In spite of that, there were no significant differences between patients and healthy controls in respect to the CD4/CD8 ratio. Interestingly, more CD4+CD25-FoxP3+ cells were found in peripheral blood of patients. The frequencies of the Tregs did not show strong associations with the DAS-28.
We showed lower abundance of nTregs in peripheral blood of RA patients which highlights the significance of these cells in RA.
类风湿关节炎（RA）患者关节存在广泛的自身免疫反应。其机制通常不明，可能与调节性T细胞（Treg）失调有关。
比较活动期类风湿疾病患者与健康个体外周血中天然调节性T细胞（nTregs）的频率。
根据临床和实验室标准，选取25例新诊断的活动期RA患者，在开始治疗前采集外周血样本。通过免疫染色和流式细胞术分析对外周血样本中的Treg细胞进行计数。
尽管所有研究患者的疾病活动评分-28（DAS-28）存在差异，但临床和实验室结果均支持其处于活动期疾病状态。与健康对照组相比，RA患者的CD4+CD25hi或CD4+CD25+FoxP3+天然调节性T细胞频率显著降低。尽管如此，患者与健康对照组在CD4/CD8比值方面无显著差异。有趣的是，在患者外周血中发现了更多的CD4+CD25-FoxP3+细胞。Tregs的频率与DAS-28无强烈关联。
我们发现RA患者外周血中nTregs丰度较低，这凸显了这些细胞在RA中的重要性。
