Expression of TLR2 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and its correlation with interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-α in patients with acne vulgaris

Abstract

Objective To explore the role of Toll like receptor 2 （TLR2） in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris. Methods Venous blood was collected from 30 normal human controls and 90 patients with acne vulgaris. The patients were equally divided into three groups, i.e., mild, moderate and severe groups, according to disease severity. Flow cytometry was performed to detect the expression of TLR2 in PBMCs, and double antibody sandwich ELISA to measure the levels of serum interleukin-8 （IL-8） and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）. Results A significant increase was observed in the expression of TLR2 in PBMCs, serum level of IL-8and TNF-α in the three groups of patients with acne vulgaris compared with the normal human controls （all P ＜0.01）. The expression of TLR2 was positively correlated with the expression of IL-8 （r=0.382, 0.517,0.436,respectively, all P＜0.05） and TNF-α（r=0.641, 0.725, 0.593, respectively, all P＜0.05） in the patients with mild, moderate and severe acne vulgaris, respectively, and with the severity of acne vulgaris （r = 0.406,P＜0.01 ）. Conclusion The expression level of TLR2 and related cytokines seems closely correlated with the severity of acne vulgaris. Key words: Acne vulgaris; Toll-like receptors; Interleukin-8; Tumor necrosis factor-α