The correlation between the immune imbalance of T helper 17 cell/regulatory T cell and cytokines in patients with Beh?et's disease / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the characteristics of lymphocyte subsets and the correlation between the immune imbalance of T helper 17 cell/regulatory T cell (Th17/Treg) and cytokines in peripheral blood of patients with Beh?et's disease(BD).Methods:From January 2018 to November 2019, 82 outpatient and inpatient with BD of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University with complete data were enrolled. The disease activity was evaluated according to BD Current Activity Form(BDCAF), and 66 age and matched healthy people were selected as the control group. The absolute numbers of lymphocyte subsets and T cell subsets dominated by Th17 and CD4 +CD25 +Foxp3 + Treg in patients with BD and healthy controls were detected by Flow cytometry. The levels of interleukin (IL-2), IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, Interferon (IFN)-γ and Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF)-α in patients with BD were measured by Cytometric Beads Array (CBA). The correlations between the ratio of Th17/Treg with inflammatory index, the number of organ involved and the levels of cytokines were analyzed. Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H test, Spearman correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. Results:①The absolute numbers of Th17 cells in peripheral blood of patients with active BD [13.9(7.7, 21.1) cells/μl] and patients with stable BD [8.7(6.1, 14.0) cells/μl] were higher than those of healthy controls [6.8(4.4, 8.5) cells/μl] ( P<0.01); The ratio of Th17/Treg was significantly increased ( P<0.01). The absolute co unts of Treg cells in BD group [24.79(15.64, 37.91) cells/μl] were sign-ificantly lower than those in healthy controls [30.59(23.04, 42.08) cells/μl], the difference was statistically significant ( P=0.016). ② The ratio of Th17/Treg was positively correlated with BDCAF ( r=0.298, P=0.007) and the number of organ involved ( r=0.304, P=0.006) was negatively correlated with age ( r=-0.254, P<0.05), and not correlated with the duration of disease and ESR ( P>0.05) in patients with BD. In addition, multiple linear stepwise regression showed that the ratio of Th17/Treg was positively correlated with BDCAF ( β=0.228, P=0.036) and negatively correlated with age ( β=-0.219, P=0.043), R2=0.101. ③ The levels of IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IFN-γ in patients with BD were stati-stically higher than those of healthy controls ( P<0.01). The ratio of Th17/Treg was positively correlated with the levels of IL-2 ( r=0.307, P<0.01) and IL-4 ( r=0.301, P<0.01) in patients with BD. Conclusion:There is immune imbalance of Th17/Treg in patients with BD, which is closely related to disease activity, the number of organ involved, and the levels of cytokines such as IL-2 and IL-4. IL-2 and IL-4 may play an important role in the immune imbal-ance of Th17/Treg in patients with BD.