Circulating Memory T Cells and TCF1+ T Cells Aid in Diagnosis and Monitor Disease Activity in Vitiligo

Abstract

Vitiligo is an immune memory skin disease. T-cell factor 1 (TCF1) is essential for maintaining the maintenance of the memory T-cell pool. There is an urgent need to investigate the characteristics of peripheral memory T-cell profile and TCF1+ T-cell frequencies in patients with vitiligo patients. In this study, 31 patients with active vitiligo (AV), 22 with stable vitiligo (SV), and 30 healthy controls (HCs) were included. We measured circulating memory and TCF1+ T-cell frequencies using by flow cytometry. The Spearman’s rank test was used to evaluate the correlation correlations between cell frequencies and disease characteristics. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed to investigate the discriminative power of the cell subpopulations. Circulating CD4+ and CD8+ terminally differentiated effector memory T-cell (TEMRA) frequencies were significantly higher in the AV group than in compared to HCs (P < 0.05). TCF1+ T-cell subpopulations were widespread increased in patients with vitiligo patients (P < 0.05). After adjusting adjustment for potential confounders, CD8+ and CD4+ central memory (TCM) cells, and CD8+ TEMRA were correlated with disease activity (P < 0.05). The combined diagnostic value of the four (naïve naive, effector memory, TCM, and TEMRA) CD8+TCF1+ T-cell subsets was relatively high (area under the ROC curve [AUC]AUC = 0.804, sensitivity = 71.70%, specificity = 83.34%), and the CD8+ T-cell subsets combination performed well in discriminating disease activity (AUC = 0.849, sensitivity = 70.97%, specificity = 90.91%). We demonstrated an altered circulating memory T-cell profile and increased TCF1+ T-cell percentage percentages in patients with vitiligo patients. T-cell subpopulations had a strong value values for vitiligo diagnosis and activity evaluation. This evidence presents a potential new pharmacological target for inhibiting to inhibit the autoimmunity that leads leading to vitiligo disease activity.