Clinical Significance of T Cell Subsets and CD4~+CD25~+ T cells of SLE Patients

Objective To study the clinical significance of the percentages of T cell subsets and CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells of peripheral blood in SLE patients. Methods The percentages of CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD4+CD45RA+,CD8+CD28+,CD8+CD28- T cell subsets and CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells of peripheral blood from 68 SLE patients (38 in active stage and 30 in stable stage) and 30 normal subjects (control group) were determined by flow cytometry. Results Compared with control group, the percentages of CD3+CD4+ and CD4+CD45RA+ T cell subsets of SLE patients in active stage were decreased (P=0.000,P=0.001), while the percentages of CD3+CD8+ and CD8+CD28- T cell subsets were significantly increased(P=0.000,P=0.000). The level of CD8+CD28+ T cell subsets of SLE patients in stable stage were higher than that in active stage and control group(P=0.011,P=0.435). The levels of CD3+CD4+ and CD4+CD45RA+ of SLE patients in stable stage were higher than that inactive stage, but there is no difference between these two subsets (P=0.067, P=0.081).The level of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells was significantly decreased in patients with disease at active stage when compared with control group and patients with disease at stable stage (P=0.000,P=0.001). No difference was observed between patients with disease at stable stage and healthy subjects(P=0.572. Conclusion T cell subsets of SLE patients are abnormal. The increase of CD8+CD28- T cells in SLE patients is related to disease stage and clinical manifestation and may play a major role in stabilizing the condition of SLE patients. The decrease of CD4+CD25+ T cells may lead to the weakening of suppressing auto-reactive immune responses and play a vital role in the pathogeneses of SLE.