Department of Immunogenetics, Human Genetics and Genome Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Clinical Genetics, Developmental Assessment and Genetic Disorders Clinic, Human Genetics and Genome Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 18;13(1):15445. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-42370-0.
Recurrent and severe infections occurred in children with Down Syndrome (DS) due to immunological parameter defects have been reported. The aim of the study is to evaluate the importance of using T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC) and kappa-deleting recombination excision circle (KREC) as molecular markers for immunological investigation of children with DS. The study included 40 non-disjunction trisomy 21 confirmed DS children, and 25 healthy controls. Peripheral blood (PB) was analyzed for lymphocyte subpopulations by flow cytometry, serum immunoglobulin levels, and TREC and KREC copy numbers using quantitative real-time PCR. DS patients showed significantly lower absolute counts of PB T lymphocytes, T helper lymphocytes, T cytotoxic lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and Natural killer cells, and lower serum IgA, IgG, and IgM levels compared to healthy controls. Copy number of TREC and KREC showed no significant differences between DS patients and healthy controls. There is a significant positive correlation between TREC copy number with a percentage and absolute count of helper T lymphocytes in patients. Also, the KREC copy number was significantly negatively correlated with the age of patients. These findings suggest that copy numbers of TREC and KREC could be useful as molecular markers for immunological evaluation of patients with DS.
已有报道称,唐氏综合征(DS)患儿由于免疫参数缺陷,会反复发生严重感染。本研究旨在评估 T 细胞受体切除环(TREC)和κ缺失重组切除环(KREC)作为 DS 患儿免疫研究的分子标志物的重要性。该研究纳入了 40 例非整倍体 21 三体 DS 患儿和 25 名健康对照者。采用流式细胞术分析外周血(PB)淋巴细胞亚群,采用实时定量 PCR 检测血清免疫球蛋白水平和 TREC 和 KREC 拷贝数。与健康对照组相比,DS 患儿的 PB T 淋巴细胞、辅助性 T 淋巴细胞、细胞毒性 T 淋巴细胞、B 淋巴细胞和自然杀伤细胞的绝对计数以及血清 IgA、IgG 和 IgM 水平明显降低。TREC 和 KREC 的拷贝数在 DS 患儿和健康对照组之间无显著差异。患者的 TREC 拷贝数与辅助性 T 淋巴细胞的百分比和绝对计数呈显著正相关。此外,KREC 拷贝数与患者的年龄呈显著负相关。这些发现表明,TREC 和 KREC 的拷贝数可作为 DS 患儿免疫评估的分子标志物。