Serviço de Reumatologia, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 2350 Ramiro Barcelos St, Room 645, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-903, Brazil.
Programa de Pós Graduação em Medicina: Ciências Médicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Adv Rheumatol. 2021 May 22;61(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s42358-021-00182-8.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by vasculopathy and fibrosis, which can be subclassified into diffuse cutaneous (dSSc) and limited cutaneous (lSSc) subtypes. Previous studies suggest that an increase in monocytes can be a hallmark of various inflammatory diseases, including SSc. Our aim was to evaluate circulating blood monocyte subpopulations (classical, intermediate and non-classical) of SSc patients and their possible association with disease manifestations.
Fifty consecutive patients fulfilling the 2013 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for SSc were included in a cross-sectional study. Monocyte subpopulations were identified based on their expression of CD64, CD14 and CD16, evaluated by flow cytometry, and were correlated with the clinical characteristics of the patients; furthermore, the expression of HLA-DR, CD163, CD169 and CD206 in the monocytes was studied. Thirty-eight age- and sex-matched healthy individuals were recruited as a control group.
SSc patients had an increased number of circulating peripheral blood monocytes with an activated phenotypic profile compared to healthy subjects. Absolute counts of CD16+ (intermediary and non-classical) monocyte subpopulations were higher in SSc patients. There was no association between monocyte subpopulations and the clinical manifestations evaluated.
We identified higher counts of all monocyte subpopulations in SSc patients compared to the control group. There was no association between monocyte subpopulations and major fibrotic manifestations. CD169 was shown to be more representative in dSSc, being a promising marker for differentiating disease subtypes.
系统性硬化症（SSc）是一种以血管病变和纤维化为特征的慢性自身免疫性疾病，可以分为弥漫性皮肤型（dSSc）和局限性皮肤型（lSSc）。先前的研究表明，单核细胞的增加可能是各种炎症性疾病的标志，包括 SSc。我们的目的是评估 SSc 患者循环血液单核细胞亚群（经典、中间和非经典）及其与疾病表现的可能关联。
我们纳入了 50 例连续的符合 2013 年 ACR/EULAR SSc 分类标准的患者进行横断面研究。通过流式细胞术根据 CD64、CD14 和 CD16 的表达来鉴定单核细胞亚群，并与患者的临床特征相关联；此外，还研究了单核细胞中 HLA-DR、CD163、CD169 和 CD206 的表达。招募了 38 名年龄和性别匹配的健康个体作为对照组。
与健康对照组相比，SSc 患者外周血循环单核细胞数量增加，表型呈激活状态。SSc 患者的 CD16+（中间和非经典）单核细胞亚群绝对计数较高。单核细胞亚群与评估的临床表现之间没有关联。
与对照组相比，我们在 SSc 患者中发现了所有单核细胞亚群的计数更高。单核细胞亚群与主要纤维化表现之间没有关联。CD169 在 dSSc 中更为典型，是区分疾病亚型的有前途的标志物。
