Preliminary Study On The Early Apoptotic Lymphocytes In The Peripheral Blood Of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective To determine whether the apoptosis in human SLE patients is abnormal by examining the early apoptotic lymphocytes in their peripheral blood, and investigate whether the apoptosis of lymphocytes is related to some changes of experimental indexes in SLE patients, and inquire into the role of the apoptosis of lymphocytes in the patho-genesis of SLE.Methods The levels of the early apoptotic cells of 34 SLE patients and control group of 13 age and sex-matched healthy donors were assessed by a novel assay -Annex-in V and propidiumiodide(PI) staining with flow cytometry (FCM); While anti-ENA autoantibodies of SLE patients were detected with Western-blot; and complement (C3) of the patients and the control group was tested quantitatively by turbidimetry.Results The percentage of the early apoptotic lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of active SLE patients was significantly higher (13. 46 + 4. 13, n = 23) than that of the inactive SLE patients (5.29 + 2. 74, n=ll, t=6. 128, P<0. 001), and of the normal healthy donors (5. 14 + 2. 33, n=13, t= 6.860, P<0. 001) , but there was no marked difference between quiescent SLE and normal healthy donors (t = 0. 15, P> 0.05). Of the active SLE patients, no difference was found between the incipient and the treated with corticosteroid or immunosuppressive therapy (i=0. 21, P>0. 05). Statistically significant differences were shown between , one group with two and more kinds of autoantibodies determined, and another group which had at most one kind of autoantibody ( f=4. 747, P<0. 001) in SLE patitents; Besides, the rate of apoptosis negatively correlated with the complement in active SLE patients (r=-0. 8587, P< 0. 01).The rate of apoptosis of PBL in SLE-nephritis patients was higher than that in non-SLE nephritis patients(f=4. 35, P<0. 01).Conclusion The early apoptotic lymphocytes increase significantly in the peripheral blood of human SLE patients, which means the apoptosis of lymphocytes accelerates from the patients with SLE, much more nucleosomes are produced, so a lot of autoanti-gens were released from apoptizing cells, which may contribute to the pathogenesis of SLE by producing excessive amounts of autoantibodies.