You Xujie, Zhang Ruijun, Shao Miao, He Jing, Chen Jiali, Liu Jiajia, Zhang Xia, Liu Xu, Jia Rulin, Sun Xiaolin, Li Zhanguo
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory for Rheumatism and Immune Diagnosis (BZ0135), Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2020 Apr 7;7:85. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2020.00085. eCollection 2020.
Recent studies on double negative B cells (DN B cells) suggested that they have potential pathogenic roles in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study aimed to determine the circulating DN B cells in SLE patients and analyzed the clinical significance of this cell subset. Fifty-seven SLE patients and fifty healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this study. Among the 57 SLE patients, 25 had lupus nephritis (LN). All patients were followed up for 24 weeks. Peripheral B cell subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. DN B cells were significantly elevated in the SLE patients, especially in the patients with LN ( < 0.01). DN B showed a positive correlation with 24-h urine protein excretion (24 h-UPE) levels ( = 0.444, = 0.034) in LN patients, and inversely correlated with evaluated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ( = -0.351, = 0.011). DN B cells had a positive correlation with plasma cells ( = 0.484, < 0.001) and memory B cells ( = 0.703, < 0.001). After treatment, decreased DN B cells were associated with LN alleviation ( = 0.002). In the follow-up, the remission rate of LN patients with decreased DN B cells was significantly higher than LN patients with increased DN B cells (83.33 vs. 25.00%, = 0.030) at week 24. This study suggests that the peripheral DN B cells are positively correlated with the severity of renal damage in LN patients and may potentially be used as a prognostic marker in LN.
近期关于双阴性B细胞（DN B细胞）的研究表明，它们在系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）中具有潜在的致病作用。本研究旨在确定SLE患者循环中的DN B细胞，并分析该细胞亚群的临床意义。本研究招募了57例SLE患者和50名健康对照者（HCs）。在57例SLE患者中，25例患有狼疮性肾炎（LN）。所有患者均随访24周。通过流式细胞术分析外周血B细胞亚群。SLE患者的DN B细胞显著升高，尤其是LN患者（<0.01）。在LN患者中，DN B细胞与24小时尿蛋白排泄（24 h-UPE）水平呈正相关（=0.444，=0.034），与评估的肾小球滤过率（eGFR）呈负相关（=-0.351，=0.011）。DN B细胞与浆细胞呈正相关（=0.484，<0.001），与记忆B细胞呈正相关（=0.703，<0.001）。治疗后，DN B细胞减少与LN缓解相关（=0.002）。在随访中，第24周时DN B细胞减少的LN患者缓解率显著高于DN B细胞增加的LN患者（83.33%对25.00%，=0.030）。本研究表明，外周血DN B细胞与LN患者肾损伤的严重程度呈正相关，可能潜在地用作LN的预后标志物。
