T Cell Subsets Study Of The Patients With Serious COPD During Acute Exacerbation

Objective To elucidate the difference of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell in peripheral blood and IFN-y,IL-4 and IL-6 expression in peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+T cell of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods Peripheral blood was abstained from 15 patients with COPD and 10 normal control subjects.The cells were stimulated with PMA and inomycin in the presence of monensin and kept in tubes for 4 hours at 37癈 in a humidified atmosphere at 5% CO2 in air.Monensin was used to block intracellular transport mechanisms,thereby leading to an cytokine accumulation of golgiosome in the cells.Thereafter,lysing solution was added in order to lyse erythrocytes.The remaining blood cells were first stained by fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies specific for cell surface antigen CD4 and CDS.Then fix and permeabilize cells by adding Cytofix/Cytoperm solution.Subsequently the cells were incubated with anti-IFN-y,anti-IL-4 or anti-IL-6 PE for intracellular staining.At last,CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and subsets were measured by Flow cytometry.Results (1) There was a lower frequency of CD44 T cell in the patients with COPD than control subjects and no significantly difference of CDS"1" T cells between the 2 groups.(2) The frequencies of Thl and Thl/Th2 ratio were significantly increased in patients compared with control subjects and that of Th2 was decreased.(3)There was an increased percentage of Tel and a high Tcl/Tc2 ratio,a decreased percentage of Tc2 among peripheral blood CD8+ T cell from patients with COPD compared with control supjects.(4)There was a decreased percentage of IL-6 producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from patients with COPD.Conclution (l)During acute exacerbation in patients with serious COPDthe decreased CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood indicate they have the deficiencyof immune function.The increased Thl cells,decreased Th2 cells and imbalance of Thl/Th2 ratio suggest the disorder of immune function.(2) During acute exacerbation imbalance of Tcl/Tc2 ratio shows the disorder of immune function,though no significantly difference of CD8+ T cells in the patients with COPD than control subjects. (3)The high IL-6 level in blood serum might result from the increased production of IL-6 in other cells of blood with the exception of lymphocytes and that in tissues which disperses to blood.These findings suggest that T-lymphocyte immune abnormalities might be involved in the pathogenesis of the repeating inflammation in the airways, the deferred recover of chronic inflammation and lung damage.