Wang Ying, Lu Wenting, Li Aipeng, Sun Zhengyi, Wang Liying
Institute of Pediatrics, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Department of Molecular Biology, Norman Bethune College of Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
PeerJ. 2018 Dec 18;6:e6114. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6114. eCollection 2018.
Previous studies have shown that the adaptive immunity function of T cells in disease states correlates with CD3 surface expression closely. During routine assessment of TBNK subsets in peripheral blood of pediatric patients by flow cytometry, we noticed that variable expression levels of CD3 on CD3CD4CD8 double-negative T (DNT) lymphocytes in different patients. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship of CD3 expression levels on DNT cells with disease severity.
In this prospective study, we investigated the frequencies of circulating CD4CD8 DNT cell subsets with CD3 or CD3 phenotype by flow cytometry in 76 pediatric patients with pneumonia, 55 patients with severe pneumonia (SP), and 29 healthy controls (Con).
The numbers of circulating DNT cells were similar in all groups; however, the frequency of CD3 DNT cell subsets was significantly increased in patients with pneumonia ( < 0.001) and SP ( < 0.001). The elevated CD3 DNT cell frequency showed a positive correlation with the clinical severity of pneumonia. On sub-group analysis, the frequency of CD3 DNT cells was only elevated in children with pneumonia aged <5 years, while no association was observed with the causative pathogen of pneumonia.
These findings suggest that CD3 expression levels on DNT cell subsets of peripheral lymphocytes may be a valuable biomarker for evaluation of immune response in pediatric infectious disease. CD3 DNT cells were elevated in children with pneumonia aged <5 years, which indicates that it may be an important research target in pediatric infectious diseases.
先前的研究表明，疾病状态下T细胞的适应性免疫功能与CD3表面表达密切相关。在通过流式细胞术对儿科患者外周血中的TBNK亚群进行常规评估时，我们注意到不同患者中CD3CD4CD8双阴性T（DNT）淋巴细胞上CD3的表达水平存在差异。本研究的目的是评估DNT细胞上CD3表达水平与疾病严重程度之间的关系。
在这项前瞻性研究中，我们通过流式细胞术调查了76例肺炎儿科患者、55例重症肺炎（SP）患者和29例健康对照（Con）中具有CD3或CD3表型的循环CD4CD8 DNT细胞亚群的频率。
所有组中循环DNT细胞的数量相似；然而，肺炎患者（<0.001）和SP患者（<0.001）中CD3 DNT细胞亚群的频率显著增加。CD3 DNT细胞频率升高与肺炎的临床严重程度呈正相关。亚组分析显示，仅<5岁的肺炎儿童中CD3 DNT细胞频率升高，而与肺炎的致病病原体无关。
这些发现表明，外周淋巴细胞DNT细胞亚群上的CD3表达水平可能是评估儿科传染病免疫反应的有价值的生物标志物。<5岁的肺炎儿童中CD3 DNT细胞升高，这表明它可能是儿科传染病中的一个重要研究靶点。
