Expression And Clinical Significance Of Th1/Th2 Cytokines In Peripheral Blood Of Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective To explore the role of Th1/Th2 balance in the occurrence and development of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)and the effect of treatment on the Th1/Th2 balance of SLE.Methods 46 patients with SLE in the Department of dermatology in our hospital were collected as the subjects.The SLE patients were divided into active and inactive groups,and the standard dose of prednisone combined with cyclophosphamide was given.25 healthy subjects in our hospital during the same period were selected as control group.The levels of Th1 cytokine(IL-2,IFN-γ)and Th2 type cytokine(IL-4,IL-10)in peripheral blood were measured by ELISA,and the ratio of IFN-γ/ IL-4 was calculated.And then comparing the difference of IL-2、IFN-γ、IL-4、IL-10、IFN-γ/ IL-4 between SLE patients and healthy persons,active and inactive phases,those of active SLE patients before treatment and treatment for 2 weeks.Correlation analysis with SLEDAI,C3,C34,ds-DNA were also conducted.Results(1)Compared with the healthy group,IL-2 and of IFN-γ/ IL-4 were significantly lower in SLE patients(P< 0.05),IL-4 and IL-10 were significantly increased in SLE patients(P< 0.05),but the difference of IFN-γ between two groups was not statistically significant(P> 0.05).(2)IL-2,IFN-γ and IFN-γ/ IL-4 in the active group were significantly lower than those in the inactive group and healthy group(all P< 0.05),IL-4 increased significantly in the active group than those in the inactive group and healthy group(all P< 0.05),IL-10 increased significantly in the active group and inactive group than those in the healthy group.(3)IL-2 and IFN-γ/ IL-4 were significantly increased(P< 0.05),IL-4 and IL-10 were significantly decreased after treatment for 2 weeks compared with those before treatment(P< 0.05).But the difference of IFN-γ was not statistically significant(P> 0.05).(4)Correlation analysis showed that IL-2 was negatively correlated with SLEDAI;IFN-γ was negatively correlated with SLEDAI,positively correlated with C3;IL-4 was positively correlated with SLEDAI.Conclusion(1)The occurrence and development of SLE may be closely related to the imbalance of Th1/Th2 caused by decrease of Th1 function and hyper function of Th2.(2)Th1/Th2 imbalance may reflect the activity of SLE patients to some extent,but the levels of cytokine may not be effective indicators of disease activity.(3)Regulating Th cell imbalance may be the mechanism of glucocorticoid and immunosuppressor for SLE treatment.