The study on the expressions of circulatory CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells and the plasma levels of soluble CD25 in septic patients / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cell percentage and plasma levels of soluble CD25 molecules in peripheral blood of septic patients and their clinical value through prospective study. Method A total of 37 septic patients and 15 non-infectious SIRS patients, who conformed to the criteria of SIRS and sepsis which proposed by American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Conference ( ACCP/SCCM ) in 1997, were collected in ICU of Ruijin Hospital ( Shanghai Jiaotong University) from February 2009 to February 2010. Twenty-four health people were from Medical Center of Ruijin Hospital, who were excluded infection and (or) autoimmune diseases. There were 26 male and 11 female in sepsis group, average age ( 61.67 ± 11.87 ) years old; 8 male and 7 female in SIRS group, average age (67.06 ± 12.57)years old; 14 male and 10 female in health control, average age (56.54 ± 6.37 )years old. All selected patrents were excluded the autoimmune diseases and (or) patients within recent (30 days) had used or now used immunosuppressive agents. We therefore measured the Treg cell percentage in peripheral blood by Flow Cytometry and the plasma levels of IL-2sRa, IL-4, IFN-γ by ELISA. The data were analyzed by analysis of variance or nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis H test. Results ① The percentage of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells among septic patients, SIRS patients, and control group was ( 66.82 ± 21.79 ) %, ( 51.79 ± 21.79 ) %, ( 56.45 ± 10. 68 ) %, respectively. septic patients showed the highest percentages of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cell among CD4 + CD25 + T cells(P ＜ 0.05 ). ② The plasma levels of soluble CD25 in septic patients (425. 619 ± 270.12 ) were significantly higher than SIRS patients (381. 664 ± 189.83) and the control group ( 164. 1 32 ± 56.37 ) ( P ＜ 0.05 ). ③ The correlation analysis between the concentration of soluble CD25 molecules in plasma and the ratio of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells to CD4 + CD25 + T cells showed Spearman correlation coefficient =0.390, P = 0.003 ( P ＜ 0.05 ). Conclusion: the expression of natural regulatory T cells characteristically increased in septic patients. And the levels of soluble CD25 in peripheral blood were related to the percentages of natural regulatory T cells, which simplified the assessment of the immune status in Septic patients.