Detection of lymphocyte subsets and regulatory T cells in peripheral blood of patients with aplastic anemia and its clinical significance.

Objective To study the changes of lymphocyte subsets and regulatory T cells in peripheral blood of the patients with aplastic anemia (AA)and its clinical significance.Methods The levels of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and regulatory T cells in 40 AA patients and 40 healthy controls were detected with flow cytometry.Results Compared with the normal controls,the percentage of CD4+ T cell,CD16+/56+ NK cell and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ decreased obviously in AA group (P 0.05),while the percentage of CD8+ T cell increased significantly (P 0.01).There was no significant difference in the percentage of CD3+ T cell and CD19+ B cell between AA group and the normal controls(P 0.05).The proportion of CD4+ CD25+ T cells and CD4+ CD25high Treg cells in AA group was significantly lower than that of the control group(P 0.01).Conclusion Cellular immune function is significantly abnormal in patients with AA and the decrease of CD4+ CD25high Treg cells may be involved in the immune regulation dysfunction in AA.Detection of lymphocyte subsets and regulatory T cells might be necessary for the evaluation of the therapeutic effect and the prognosis of AA.