The change and significcance of regulatory T cells in peripheral blood in patients with acute and chronic gout

Abstract

Objective To investigate the change and significance of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in peripheral blood in patients with acute and chronic gout. Methods Flow cytometry was used to detect the ratio of Tregs in peripheral blood of healthy controls, patients with acute gout and patients with chronic gout. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and interleukin (IL)-1β in plasma. Then, statistical analysis was conducted to analyze the changes and significance in different stages of gout, such as F test, Kruskal-Walls H test, q test and Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis. Results ① The percentage of CD4+CD25+Foxp+ Treg/CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood was (1.22±0.27)% in control group. While in patients with acute gout, it was (1.51±0.43)%, and (0.47±0.26)% in patients with chronic gout. There were statistical significant difference among the three groups (F=101.39, P 0.05). ③ The con-centration of IL-1β in plasma in the control group was (4.8±1.3) ng/L, while that in patients with acute and chronic gout was (10.1±8.5) ng/L and (11.50±12.57) ng/L respectively, the difference between these three groupswas stati-sticallysignificant (P 0.05) patients. ④ The percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood of gout patients was negatively correlated with the duration of disease and the number of gout attacks within six months (duration of disease: r=-0.381, P<0.01; number of gout attacks: r=-0.518, P<0.01). But there wasno significant correlation to the concentration of TGF-β and IL-1β. Conclusion Tregsincreasesin acute gout and participate in the alleviation of gout inflammation, while the persistence of chronic gout may be related to the decrease of Tregs. Therefore, Tregs play an important regulatory role in the transformation of acute and chronic gout. Key words: T-lymphocytes, regulatory; Gout; Transforming growth factor-β