Role of regulatory CD4+CD25+ Foxp3 T cells in bronchial asthma in Egyptian children.

CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 regulatory T (Treg) cells are known to play a key role in balancing immune response to maintain peripheral tolerance against harmless antigens or allergens. Defective immunological suppression by CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells can be a cause of the inflammation that leads to an allergic condition such as asthma. The aims of the study are to (1) determine CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells frequency in the peripheral blood of children with and without asthma; and (2) investigate the association between CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells frequency with disease severity and corticosteroid therapy. Sixty asthmatic children with varying disease severity (20 mild, 20 moderate and 20 severe) were enrolled in the study. Severe asthmatic children were further subdivided into two groups, one on corticosteroid therapy and the other was not on corticosteroid. Twenty age and sex matched healthy children were enrolled as controls. Number of circulating CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Tregs were measured using flow cytometry. Our finding demonstrates that children with asthma had a significant decrease of CD4+CD25high Foxp3 Treg cells and Tregs/T effectors ratio in peripheral blood compared to children without asthma. Patients with moderate asthma demonstrated lower frequency of CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells compared to mild and severe asthmatic patients. Those on corticosteroid therapy revealed significant increase in CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells and decrease in T effectors. It is concluded that asthmatic children have decreased number of CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells leading to increase in effectors cells which mediate inflammation in the airways. Corticosteroid therapy plays a role in elevating number of CD4+CD25+high Foxp3 Treg cells and maintaining its suppressor function.

Evaluation of androgen receptor gene as a candidate gene in female androgenetic alopecia.

BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms of the androgen receptor (AR) gene have been studied in male androgenetic alopecia (AGA); however, little is known about gene polymorphism and female AGA. AIM: To evaluate the AR gene as a candidate gene for female AGA. METHODS: Thirty premenopausal Egyptian female patients with AGA (mean age, 32.3 +/- 7 years) and 11 age- and sex-matched controls were included. All subjects underwent laboratory and pelvic ultrasound evaluation to exclude other precipitating cause(s) of hair loss. Scalp biopsy was taken and the AR gene was evaluated using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS: According to Ludwig's classification, all patients had type II AGA. Statistical analysis showed no statistically significant difference in genotype (chi(2) = 5.513, P > or = 0.05) or allele frequency (chi(2) = 1.312, P > or = 0.05) between patients and controls. There was also no statistically significant difference between the genotype and allele frequency with disease duration. CONCLUSION: In contrast with male AGA, no association was found between type II AGA in Egyptian women and the AR gene. Therefore, the genetic study of this gene does not serve as a biomarker for the identification of women with a predisposition to AGA.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells serve as a possible extrahepatic site for hepatitis C virus replication.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is thought to have a strong tropism for hepatic tissue but also replicative intermediates are found in extrahepatic tissues suggesting active viral replication in these cells. The aim of the study is to confirm that HCV can infect and replicate in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as one of the possible sites of extrahepatic hepatitis C virus replication during the natural course of infection which may serve as a source of virions causing reinfection. Reverse transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for detection of positive and negative strands of HCV-RNA in PBMCs was done for 30 patients with chronic HCV infection admitted to Ain Shams University Hospitals and the results were compared with those from 20 healthy controls matched in age and sex. Our results revealed statistically significant association between both HCV-RNA positive strand and negative strand and both serum HCV-RNA and HCV-Antibody (Ab) (P<0.01).Moreover the association between the presence of HCV positive- and negative-strand RNA in PBMCs was statistically significant (P<0.01). Finally the correlation between HCV positive and negative stranded RNA in PBMCs and extrahepatic complications was statistically significant (P<0 .01). In conclusion our results support previous observations indicating that HCV can infect PBMCs. This is reflected by a higher frequency of extrahepatic complications and diseases associated with chronic HCV infection.