Studies of Caspase-3 and Annexin V/PI Expression on Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte from Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

To study the change of apoptosis marker in the peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) of SLE patients,Caspase 3 and Annexin V/PI expression on PBL were investigated in 44 SLE patients and 30 normal peoples by flow cytometric analysis The PBL apoptosis percentage from active SLE patients was significantly higher than that of the control ( P 0 01) Inactive SLE patients was not significantly different compared with the control ( P 0 05) There was significant correlation between PBL apoptosis percentage from SLE patients and SLE disease activity ( P 0 01) The lymphocyte apoptosis percent from active SLE patients was increased,suggesting apoptosis in vivo and immune mechanism imbalance of apoptosis may be present