Overwhelming Th17 cells compared to insufficient CD4+ regulatory T cells in rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To identify interleukin (IL)-17-producing T cells and Foxp3 positive CD4 positive T ceils from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and investigate their cytokine levels as well as their correlations. Methods Flow cytometry was used to analyze the subsets of T cells in peripheral blood from 39 RA patients and 40 healthy donors. IL-17, IL-6, IL-23 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta levels in sera of these subjects were tested by ELISA. Results IL-17+CD4+ T cells increased significantly and IL-17, IL-6 and IL-23 elevated markedly in peripheral blood of RA patients compared to healthy donors (P< 0.01 ). However,Foxp3+CD4+T cells decreased evidently (P<0.01) and TGF-beta did not increase in RA pati-ents when compared to healthy donors (P>0.05). Conclusion This study suggests that Th17 cells predomin-ance coupled with relatively insufficient CD4+ regulatory T cells in RA is mainly caused by alterations of rela-ted cytokines.