Study Of T-lymphocyte Activation And Correlation With Disease Activity In Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Objective: To investigate activation of T-lymphocyts and its correlation with lupus activity.Methods: T cell activation in both peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of 28 patients (active 16, inactive 12) with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and bone marrow cells of 11 patients (active 6, inactive 5) with SLE has been studied. Eighteen healthy volunteers were analyzed for control. Tricolor fluorescence cytometry was used to measure the expressions of CD25, HLA-DR and CD69 on CD3~+ cells. Flow cytometric data were expressed as the median positive percent±SD. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze differences among the groups. The linear correlation analysis was used to analyze relationships between immunophenotypic of T cells and lupus activity.Results: 1. The CD3~+CD69~+ and CD4~+CD25~+ cells of peripheral blood in active SLE patients were all lower than that of healthy controls (p<0.05). The CD3~+HLA-DR~+, CD4~+HLA-DR~+ and CD8~+HLA-DR~+ cells of peripheral blood were all high in active SLE patients as compared to that in healthy controls (p<0.05), but not in inactive patients (p>0.05). 2. In 28 SLE patients CD3~+CD69~+ cells of peripheral blood were negatively correlated with SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), 24 hours urine protein (r=-0.858, r=-0.756, p<0.01). 3. In active SLE patients CD3~+CD69~+ cells of peripheral blood showed high correlation with serum C4 levels and CD4~+ cells (r=0.757, r=0.666, p<0.05). 4. In inactive SLE patients there was significant negative correlation between CD4~+ and CD3~+HLA-DR~+, CD8~+HLA-DR~+ cells of peripheral blood (r=-0.924, r=-0.996, p<0.05). There was significant positive correlation between CD3~+CD69~+ cells of peripheral blood and serum C3 levels (r=0.952, p<0.05), meanwhile, CD4~+HLA-DR~+ cells of peripheral blood showed positive correlation with serum C4 levels in inactive SLE patients (r=0.939, p<0.05). 5. The expression of HLA-DR~+ and CD25~+ on CD3~+ cells of bone marrow (BM) was not significant different among the active group, the inactive group and control group (p>0.05).