ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of peripheral blood CD4~+, CD25~+ and CD4~+CD25~+ T subpopulations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosis.Methods The per- centage and fluorescence intensities of peripheral blood CD4~+,CD25~+ and CD4~+CD25~+ subpopulations from 34 SLE and 18 normal controls were measured with flow cytometry assay,then the correlation with clincal data was analyzed.The CD25~+ cells were defined as the CD25~(high) cells if their fluorescence intensity was higher than 10. Results The percentage of CD4~+CD25~+,CD4~+CD25~(high) T lymphocytes in active SLE patients[(4.80?1.21)% and (0.25?0.10)%]was lower than that in normal controls[(8.92?3.21)% and(0.44?0.22)% and non-active SLE patients(11.28?2.09)% and(0.59?0.34)%](P＜0.05).However,as for the CD25~+ cells in the CD4~+ T cells,there was no difference between SLE patients and normal control group.Peripheral blood CD4~+CD25~+,CD4~+CD25~(high) cells in SLE were reversely correlated with SLEDAI(r=-0.74,P=0.004 and r=-0.614,P=0.026),but not with others such as complements,ANA titers etc.Peripheral blood CD4~+ and CD25~+ lymphocytes in active SLE pa- tients were also lower than those in normal controls[(23?7)vs(34?7)and(7.4?1.8)vs(13.9?3.4),P＜0.05]. CD25 fluorescence intensities were higher in the SLE patients those in the normal controls,but CD4 fluores- cence intensities were not.Conclusion CD4~+CD25~+ may play a role in the pathogenesis of SLE.