Changes and Clinical Significances of Th17 Cells and Their Secretive IL-17 in Patients With Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Abstract

Objective To investigate the changes and clinical significances of T cells helper (Th) 17 cells and interleukin (IL)-17 of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) patients before and after glucocorticoid treatment.Methods From November 2010 to January 2012,a total of 38 cases of ITP patients who received treatments in First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University were included into this study,as study group.A total of 30 healthy adults who received medical examination at the same period were included into control group.There was no significant difference between two groups among age,gender and other general information (P＞0.05).Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect the rate of Th17 cells in ITP patients.The levels of serum IL 17 in ITP patients were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) (The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board of First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University).Results Before treatment,the rate of Th17 cells and the levels of serum IL-17 in study group were significantly higher than that in control group [(1.38±0.42) ％,(25.52±6.83) ng/L vs.(0.71±0.29) ％,(8.23±3.15) ng/L] (P＜0.05).The percentage of Th17 cells [(1.05±0.31)％] was significantly decreased after treatment (P＜0.05) and the same tendency was also found in the levels of serum IL-17[(17.46±5.14) ng/L](P＜0.05).Conclusions The rate of Th17 cells and the levels of serum IL-17 significantly elevate in ITP patients.Glucocorticoid might play a role in ITP treatment by down regulating Th17 cells number and concentrations of IL-17. Key words: idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura; Th17 cells; interleukin-17