Oskay Halacli Sevil, Inan Dilan, Esenboga Saliha, Bildik Hacer Neslihan, Bolat Aslihan Berra, Tezcan Ilhan, Cagdas Deniz
Division of Pediatric Immunology, Department of Basic Sciences of Pediatrics, Institute of Child's Health, Ankara 06230, Turkey.
Division of Pediatric Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06100, Turkey.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2025 Jul 26;15(15):1879. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics15151879.
: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are the main suppressor cells that maintain immune tolerance and prevent autoimmunity. Changes in Treg number or function are implicated in a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory (AI/I) diseases, with or without underlying inborn errors of immunity (IEI). Understanding the phenotypic profiles of Treg subsets and their associations with immune dysregulation is crucial to identifying potential robust and holistic biomarkers for disease activity. : We examined peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 40 patients diagnosed with various autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, including those with genetically confirmed inborn errors of immunity (IEIs), and compared these samples to those from 38 healthy controls of the same age. Utilizing multiparametric flow cytometry, we measured multiple Treg sub-populations and investigated their correlations with lymphocyte subset profiles and the diversity of autoantibodies. We applied advanced statistical and machine learning techniques, such as t-SNE, k-means clustering, and ROC analysis, to analyze immunophenotypic patterns in the patients. : Among all Treg sub-populations, only CD4CD127CD25FOXP3 Tregs showed a significant decrease in patients compared to healthy controls ( < 0.05), while other Treg phenotypes did not differ. FOXP3 expression showed reduced intensity in patients and demonstrated diagnostic potential (AUC = 0.754). Notably, this Treg subset negatively correlated with CD19 B cell percentages and positively correlated with the diversity of circulating autoantibodies. Unsupervised clustering revealed three distinct immunophenotypic profiles, highlighting heterogeneity among patients and underlining FOXP3-centered immune dysregulation. : Our results presented that patients have an impairment in the CD4CD127CD25FOXP3 regulatory T cell subset, which is identified by significantly decreased frequency and decreased expression of FOXP3. Immunological heterogeneity among patients was further uncovered by unsupervised clustering, highlighting the critical role that FOXP3-centered regulatory failure plays in the pathophysiology of illness. The combined evaluation of these three immunological factors, centered around FOXP3, holds promise as an integrative tool for monitoring disease progression across various autoimmune and immunodeficient contexts.
调节性T细胞(Tregs)是维持免疫耐受和预防自身免疫的主要抑制细胞。Treg数量或功能的变化与多种自身免疫性和炎症性(AI/I)疾病有关,无论是否存在潜在的先天性免疫缺陷(IEI)。了解Treg亚群的表型特征及其与免疫失调的关联对于识别疾病活动的潜在强大且全面的生物标志物至关重要。
我们检查了40例被诊断患有各种自身免疫性/炎症性疾病的患者的外周血单个核细胞,包括那些经基因确诊患有先天性免疫缺陷(IEIs)的患者,并将这些样本与38名同龄健康对照者的样本进行比较。利用多参数流式细胞术,我们测量了多个Treg亚群,并研究了它们与淋巴细胞亚群谱和自身抗体多样性的相关性。我们应用了先进的统计和机器学习技术,如t-SNE、k均值聚类和ROC分析,来分析患者的免疫表型模式。
在所有Treg亚群中,与健康对照相比,只有CD4CD127CD25FOXP3 Tregs在患者中显著减少(<0.05),而其他Treg表型没有差异。FOXP3表达在患者中强度降低,并显示出诊断潜力(AUC = 0.754)。值得注意的是,这个Treg亚群与CD19 B细胞百分比呈负相关,与循环自身抗体的多样性呈正相关。无监督聚类揭示了三种不同的免疫表型谱,突出了患者之间的异质性,并强调了以FOXP3为中心的免疫失调。
我们的结果表明,患者的CD4CD127CD25FOXP3调节性T细胞亚群存在缺陷,其特征是频率显著降低和FOXP3表达减少。无监督聚类进一步揭示了患者之间的免疫异质性,突出了以FOXP3为中心的调节失败在疾病病理生理学中的关键作用。围绕FOXP3对这三个免疫因素进行综合评估,有望成为监测各种自身免疫和免疫缺陷情况下疾病进展的综合工具。
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