Expression and significance of peripheral blood T helper cells in human leucocyte antigen-B27-anterior uveitis patients / 中华实验眼科杂志

ABSTRACT

Background Human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B27-associated uveitis is one of the most common causes of non-infectious uveitis.T helper 17 (Th17) cells play an important role in human autoimmune diseases,but the pathology research on the production of Th17 cells in acute anterior uveitis patients positive for HLA-B27 was rarely reported.Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and significance of the peripheral blood T helper cell subsets (Th1,Th2,Th17) in acute anterior uveitis patients positive for HLA-B27.Methods This study meets the criteria of the Helsinki Declaration.Informed consent was obtained from all the participants.A prospective cohort design was used in this study.Twenty-two patients with acute anterior uveitis positive for HLA-B27 were enrolled from Affiliated Second Hospital of Nanjing Medical University,and 16 normal healthy subjects with matched gender and age were enrolled as controls.The expression of interferon-γ (IFN-γ),interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-17 on lymphocytes (CD4+) in blood were assessed by flow cytometry,and immunoturbidimetry was used to detect the C reactive protein (CRP) level in blood.The degree of the severity of disease was evaluated by clinical scoring.The correlations between the percentage of IFN-γ+Th1,IL-4+Th2,or IL-17+Th17 with clinical factors and CRP were analyzed.Results The percentages of IFN-γ+Th1 and IL-17+Th17 in the peripheral blood were (23.11 ±9.69) ％ and (3.96±2.92) ％ in the patient group,showing a significant increase in comparison with (16.00±4.26)％ and (1.68±0.60) ％ in the control group (P=0.041,P=0.002).However,the IL-4+Th2 level was not significantly different between the patient group (0.33％ ±0.36％) and the control group (0.56％ ±0.34％) (P=0.122).No significant correlations were found between the percentage of IFN-γ+ Th1 with disease severity and CRP (r =0.197,P =0.500 ; r =0.253,P =0.383),between the percentage of IL-4+ Th2 with disease severity and CRP (r =0.068,P =0.817 ; r =0.439,P =0.116) as well as between the percentage of IL-17 + Th17 with CRP (r =0.226,P =0.436).However,a positive correlation was seen between the percentage of IL-17+ Th17 with disease severity (r =0.805,P =0.001).Conclusions IFN-γ and IL-17 in human CD4+T cells are significantly elevated in the blood of HLA-B27-related acute anterior uveitis patients.Disease severity is associated with the percentage of IL-17 +Th17,suggesting that Th1 cells together with Th17 cells participate in the pathogenesis of the disease and Th17 cells might play a dominant role in the disease.