Determination of nature regulatory T cells in peripheral blood from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its clinical significance

Objective To establish a method for detection of CD4+ CD25+ forkhead box p3(Foxp3)+ nature regulatory T cells in peripheral blood by flow cytometry(FCM) and evaluate its significance in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).Methods Three-color FCM for the determination of nature regulatory T cells was established.Using this method,CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ nature regulatory T cells were detected in 15 patients with SLE and 15 healthy controls,and expression of CD25 among CD4+ lymphocytes was also analyzed.Results The level of nature regulatory T cells in patients with SLE was(1.03±0.42)%,which was lower than that of control group [(5.88±1.40)%,P0.01].The percentage of CD4+CD25+ T cells in peripheral blood from patients with SLE decreased compared with that of control group [(5.92±3.80)% vs(32.01±5.70)%,P0.01].Conclusions Immunodeficiency of nature regulatory T cells is found in the patients with SLE,and three-color FCM is a useful method for the detection of nature regulatory T cells.