ABSTRACT
This study was aimed to investigate the effects of peripheral blood Th17 cells, IL-17 and IL-21 in the occurrence and development of acute leukemia. 60 patients with acute leukemia (19 patients with ALL, 41 patients with AML) were divided into non-remission group (group A, n=24), remission group (group B, n=36); 25 healthy volunteers were used as control group (group C). In addition to this, these 60 patients were divided into infection group (n=32) and non-infection group (n=28) on the basis of infection status. The concentration of IL-17 and IL-21 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture supernatant after stimulation with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 mAb were determined with ELISA. The expression of CD4+ IL-17+ cells was determined by flow cytometry. The results showed that (1) the concentrations of IL-17 and IL-21, and proportion of Th17 cells in group A and group B were much lower than those in group C (p<0.05); (2) the expression levels of IL-17 and IL-21, and the proportion of Th17 cells in group A were lower than those in group B (p<0.05); (3) the expression levels of Th17 and IL-17 in infection group were lower than those in non-infection group (p<0.05). It is concluded that Th17 cells may play important roles in the occurrence and development of acute leukemia through secreting IL-17 and IL-21, and their functional level can partially reflect the status of leukemia and can be used to evaluate the risks of infection in patients with leukemia.