Quantitative changes of peripheral blood dendritic cells in patients with different degrees of cerebrovascular stenosis

Abstract

Objective To study the changes of proportion of peripheral blood dendritic cells (DCs) in patients with different degrees of cerebrovascular stenosis and after stenting,and explore the relation between DCs level and cercbrovascular stenosis. Methods Sixty-three patients,admitted to our hospital from November 2009 to February 2010 and from August 2010 to December 2010,were divided into control group (CG,n=9),mild/moderate stenosis group (MsG,n=17),severe stenosis group (SsG,n=30) and stent implanted group (SiG,n=7) according the results of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and their clinical situation.Flow cytometry 4-color analysis was employed to detect the proportion of DCs subtypes in the peripheral blood. Results The percentage of peripheral blood myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) was significantly different in the above groups (P=0.000):that between CG and SsG,and that between MsG and SsG were significantly different (P＜0.05).Whereas, no obvious difference was founded in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) between each 2 groups (P=0.065).Conclusion The percentage of mDCs suggests the alterations of different degrees of cerebrovascular stenosis:the severer the stenosis,the lower the percentage of mDCs; stent implantation will not affect the distribution of DCs subtypes Key words: Dendritic cell; Atherosclerosis; Myeloid dendritic cell; Plasmacytoid dendritic cell; Digital subtraction angiography