ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the cellular immunologic response of TH 17/Treg cells in the peripheral blood of pelvic tuberculosis patients and explore their roles in the pathogenesis of pelvic tuberculosis.Methods The intracellular flow cytometry was performed to evaluate the expressions of TH 17 and Treg cells in 46 pelvic tuberculosis patients and 25 healthy controls in childbearing age.Twenty-eight of the 46 pelvic tuberculosis patients were followed up to monitor the variation of the TH17/Treg cells after 3 months and 6 months of anti-tuberculosis treatment.Results The percentage of TH 17 cells in the peripheral blood of pelvic tuberculosis patients was (3.26 ± 1.30) ％ which was significantly lower than that of healthy controls [(4.92 ± 1.71) ％,P ＜ 0.01].The percentage of Treg cells in the patients was (5.18 ± 1.53) ％ which was significantly higher than that of healthy controls [(3.26 ± 1.10) ％,P ＜ 0.01].The percentage of TH17 cells in the pelvic tuberculosis patients after 6 months of treatment was (4.67 ± 1.75) ％ which was significantly higher than that in the patients before treatment and after 3 months treatment [(3.26 ± 1.30) ％,P ＜ 0.01 and (3.70 ± 1.06) ％,P ＜0.01,respectively].The percentage of Treg cells in pelvic tuberculosis patient after 6 months of treatment was (3.93 ±0.94)％ which was significantly lower than that in the patients before treatment and after 3 months of treatment [(5.18 ± 1.53)％,P ＜0.01 and (4.94 ± 1.51) ％,P ＜ 0.01,respectively].The percentage of Treg cells in the patients after 6 months of treatment was still significantly higher than that of controls (P ＜ 0.05).The TH 17/Treg ratio before treatment was significantly lower than that of healthy controls (P ＜ 0.01),and the TH 17/Treg ratio was increased after 3 months of treatment but it did not show significant difference compared with that before treatment.The TH 17/Treg ratio after 6 months of treatment (1.18 ± 0.34) ％ was significantly increased in contrast to those after 3 months of treatment and before treatment [(0.77 ± 0.21) ％,P ＜ 0.01 and (0.55 ± 0.13) ％,P ＜ 0.01,respectively].The TH 17/Treg ratio could not rise to the normal level even after 6 months of treatment.Conclusion Both the TH 17 and Treg cells may involve in the immunologic responses of pelvic tuberculosis patients and the imbalance of TH1T/Treg cells may remain persistently.