Association between CD4~+CD25~+ regulative T cells and systemic lupus erythematosus disease active stage

Objective: To investigate the ratios of peripheral blood CD4+CD25+,CD4+CD8+ regulative T cells of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) patients, and explore the association with disease active stage,nephropathy,serum anti-ds-DNA antibody,and both IgG and C3 levels. Methods: The percentage of CD4+CD25+T cells and CD4+CD8+T cells of peripheral blood from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)(30 females and 7 males),30 rheumatism controls and 30 normal individuals were measured by flowcytometry. Results: Patients with active disease had statisitically lower levels of CD4+CD25+T cells than did normal controls(P0.01),whereas no significance could be found between patients with non-active disease and normal controls.No significance could be found between rheumatism controls and normal controls. The percentage of peripheral blood CD4+CD25+T cells in patients with active disease was significantly lower compared to patients with non-active disease(P0.01),and those were related to the disease active stage.SLE patients with nephropothy still had significantly lower levels of CD4+CD25+T cells and CD4+CD25+/CD4+ than did patient without nephropothy(P0.01). No significance could be found among patients with ds-DNA-and ds-DNA+.After treated, the numbers of NK and CD3+CD4-CD8-were found decresed, and CD8+,CD4+CD25+,CD4+CD25+/CD4+ incresed,but all these results were no statistical differences between pre-therapy and post-therapy. Conclusion: The decrease of peripheral blood CD4+CD25+T cells in blood of patients with SLE is related to disease active stage and also associate with nephropothy.The decrese of CD4+CD25+T cells may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of SLE.