The expression and significance of interleukin-9, interleukin-17 and interferon-γ in CD4+ T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect the levels of IL-9,IL-17,and IFN-γ in CD4+T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods The peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with RA and healthy controls were obtained,then the CD4+ T lymphocytes were tested by immunomagnetic beads.The protein levels of IL-9,IFN-γ and IL-17 were measured by flow cytometry (FCM).The mRNA levels of IL-9,IL-17,RORγt and IFN-γwere also detected by qRT-PCR.Data were analyzed by comparison between groups using variance analysis,and Pearson's correlation analysis was used for linear correlation analysis.Results The isolation of untouched human CD4+ T cells from PBMC was effective and its purity was over 90％.The protein levels of IL-9,IL-17,IFN-γwere higher in patients with active RA as compared with patients with inactive RA (P＜0.01) which were (1.62±0.23)％ vs (1.15±0.24)％(P＜0.01),(1.47±0.20)％ vs (1.04±0.26)％(P＜0.01) and (8.1±0.6)％ vs (6.9±1.0)％(P＜0.01) respectively,so did the patients with RA when compared with healthy controls (P＜0.01).The mRNA levels of IL-9,IL-17,RORγt and IFN-γ were higher in patients with active RA as compared with inactive RA patients (P＜0.01),which were (3.0±0.6) vs (1.8±0.4) (p＜0.01) (4.2±0.9)vs (2.3±0.7) (P＜0.01),(4.1±0.7)vs (2.9±0.3) (P＜0.01)and (4.0±0.8)vs (2.3±0.6) (P＜0.01) respectively,so did the patients with RA when compared with healthy controls (P＜0.01).Intracelluar IL-9 levels were positively correlated with IL-17 (r=0.632,P=0.001),IFN-γ (r=0.515,P=0.008),DAS28 (r=0.519,P=0.009) and ESR (r=0.857,P=0.038) but had no correlation with CRP (r=0.38,P=0.61).Conclusion The levels of IL-17,IL-9,IFN-γare higher in the PBMCs of RA patients,and these cytokines may participate in the pathogenesis of RA.