Imbalance of Tc and Th in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Its Significance

Abstract

To investigate the imbalance of Tc1/Tc2,Th1/Th2 and Tc/Th in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and its relationship with the clinical stages of SLE. The full blood culture and flow cytometry with fluorescence-labelled T lymphocytes were used to detect the levels of T-lymphocyte subsets and its intracellular factors IFN-γ and IL-4 in peripheral blood from SLP patients in active, inactive stages and normal healthy persons as controls, to compare the changes of Tc1,Tc2; Th1,Th2 levels and Tc/Th ratio in SLP patients in active and inactive stages, and to analyze their relationship with SLEDAI staging. Compared with healthy controls, the levels of CD4+/CD8+ in active SLE patients were significantly lower, but the levels of Tc1,Th1 in active SLE patients were higher than those in inactive SLE patients and normal controls. The ratio of Tc1/Tc2 and Th1/Th2 in the active SLE was higher than that in inactive SLE and normal controls(P<0.05), but the difference between inactive SLE patients and controls was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The Tc/Th imbalances and change of Tc and Th cells to Tc1 and Th1 cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.