Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2021 Jun;17(6):667-680. doi: 10.1080/1744666X.2021.1915770. Epub 2021 Apr 15.
Alterations in the levels and activity of Tfh may lead to impaired immune tolerance and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion and types of Tfh cells in the peripheral blood (PB) of RA patients.Comprehensive databases were searched for studies evaluating the proportion of Tfh cells in the PB of patients with RA compared to healthy control (HCs).The proportion of Tfh cells in RA patients was significantly higher than in HCs (SMD 0.699, [0.513, 0.884], p < 0.0001). Furthermore, Tfh cells proportion in untreated-RA and early-RA patients was markedly greater than HCs, when comparisons done without considering the definition markers, and also when Tfh cells were defined by the specified definition markers. While the proportion of Tfh cells by all definitions was higher in active-RA compared to HCs, analysis of two definitions, CD4CXCR5 and CD4CXCR5ICOS, didn't show significant differences. Furthermore, higher proportion of Tfh cells defined by all definitions and a specified definition (CD4CXCR5PD-1) was observed when SRA compared to SRA patients.The results demonstrate that circulating Tfh are highly elevated in RA patients highlights its potential use as a biomarker and a target for RA therapy.
Tfh 细胞水平和活性的改变可能导致免疫耐受受损和自身免疫性疾病。本研究旨在探讨 RA 患者外周血（PB）中 Tfh 细胞的比例和类型。
全面检索了评估 RA 患者 PB 中 Tfh 细胞比例与健康对照（HC）相比的研究。RA 患者的 Tfh 细胞比例明显高于 HC（SMD 0.699，[0.513, 0.884]，p < 0.0001）。此外，在不考虑定义标志物的情况下进行比较时，未经治疗的 RA 和早期 RA 患者的 Tfh 细胞比例明显大于 HC，并且当 Tfh 细胞通过指定的定义标志物定义时也是如此。虽然所有定义的 Tfh 细胞比例在活动期 RA 中均高于 HC，但对两个定义（CD4CXCR5 和 CD4CXCR5ICOS）的分析并未显示出显著差异。此外，当与 SRA 患者相比时，所有定义和指定定义（CD4CXCR5PD-1）的 Tfh 细胞比例更高。
结果表明，RA 患者循环 Tfh 细胞高度升高，这突出了其作为生物标志物和 RA 治疗靶点的潜在用途。
