Effects of narrow band ultraviolet B irradiation on the expression of Th17, Treg and their related cytokines in patients with psoriasis vulgaris / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the impact of narrow band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) irradiation on the expression of T helper 17 (Thl7) and CD4,CD25 and regulatory T (Treg) cells and their related cytokines transfor-ming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) to further clarify how NB-UVB treatment helps patients with psoriasis vulgaris.Methods Ninety patients with active stage and stationary stage psoriasis vulgaris (45 cases each) were treated with NB-UVB for 8 weeks.Fifty healthy persons were used as normal controls.Peripheral blood levels of Th17 and Treg were measured by flow cytometry.An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the serum levels of TGF-β1 and IL-6 before and after treatment.Clinical efficacy was evaluated in terms of the area of psoriasis and severity index (PASI) scores.Restlts Before treatment,the patients showed significantly higher levels of Thl7 cells in their peripheral blood than the controls.Their ratios of Th17 to Treg cells and their serum levels of IL-6 were also significantly higher.The percentage of Treg cells and the serum level of TGF-β1 were significantly lower in the patients.After the NB-UVB treatment,the Th17 cells,the ratio of Th17 to Treg cells and IL-6 had all decreased significantly.The percentage of Treg cells and TGF-β1 levels were significantly high-er compared with before phototherapy.The total effectiveness rate was 86.7％,and the average PASI scores had de-creased significantly.The PASI scores were positively correlated with the percentage of Th17,the Th17 to Treg ratio,and the serum level of IL-6,and negatively correlated with the percentage of Treg cells and TGF-β1.Conclusion The imbalance between Th17 and Treg cells and their cytokines may play an important role in the pathogenesis of pso-riasis.NB-UVB is able to significantly down-regulate the levels of Th17,IL-6 and the progression of Treg levels and TGF-β1 expression.It can regulate the balance between Thl7and Treg cells,which may be one of the mechanisms of NB-UVB treatment for psoriasis.The clinical data demonstrate that NB-UVB treatment is a safe and effective therapy for psoriasis vulgaris.