Peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets in patients with MDS treated with a combination of cyclosporin A and thalimide

To explore the effect of the combined therapy of cyclosporin A(CsA) and thalidomide on peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets,22 MDS patients at low or mid-risk who were treated by the remedy were followed up to observe the peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets.The percentage of CD4+ T cells and CD4+ /CD8+ ratio in the peripheral blood of the patients were lower than those in the control group(P0.05).The percentage of helper T lymphocytes were increased in the group with hematologic improvement(P0.05),but that of CD8+T lymphocytes were decreased.These findings indicates that there are abnormalities of T cell subsets in the patients with MDS,and the extent of abnormalities may change with disease progression.We thought that there are abnormalities in T cell subsets in MDS,and CsA and thalidomide may be involved in changing Th/Ts cell ratio.