A Study Of The Expression Of Lipid Raft/GM1 In Peripheral Blood T Cell And Its Correlation With Cytokines In SLE Patients

Objective1. To detect the quantitative expression of gangliosides (GM1) which is a component of lipid raft on the T cell subgroup from patients with SLE and healthy controls;2. To determine the plasma level of Th1/Th2 cytokines TNF-a, IL-10 and sCD30 from patients with SLE and healthy controls;3. To measure the content of serum immune index of IgA, IgG, IgM,C3, C4,ANA titers,anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm of SLE patients and to count the clinical index of clinical symptoms and organ damage of SLE patients;4. To study the correlation between the GM1 and the plasma level of Th cytokines, sCD30 and clinical parameters of SLE patientsMethod5. By using flow cytometry , we detected the expression of GM1 (Mean fluorescence intensity MFI) on T cell subgroup ( CD4~+ T cell, CD8~+ T cell ) membrane from 44 patients with SLE and 28 normal controls;6. The plasma levels of sCD30, IL-10 and TNF-a were assayed by ELISA;7. We measured the serum IgA, IgG, IgM, C3 and C4 of SLE patients by immunoturbidimetric assay. The serum ANA titers and anti-dsDNA were detemined by indirect immunofluorescence and we detected serum anti-Sm of SLE patients by immunoblotting.Results1. On CD4~+ T cell, the expession of GM1 (Mean fluorescence intensity MFI) of active and inactive SLE patients were both significantly higher when compared with normal controls (p<0.001, respectively). Whereas on CD8~+ T cells, there was no significant difference of the expession of GM1 between SLE patients and normal controls(P>0.05);2. The plasma levels of sCD30 and IL-10 were significantly higher in SLE patients than the normal controls. (p<0.001, p<0.005 respectively). Nevertheless, there is no significant difference of the TNF-a level between the SLE patients and the normal controls(P>0.1);3. The expession of GM1 in CD4~+ T cells was positively correlated with SLEDAI scores, the levels of IgG as well as sCD30 of SLE patients.Besides,sCD30 is positively correlated with serum IgG of SLE patients.Conclusions1. .As the reliable marker of lipid raft, GM1 was quantificational measured for the first time to show that lipid raft is aberrant on CD4~+ T cell from patients with SLE. The change may lead the abnormal T cell activation and TCR signal conductive pathway, and correlated with the abnormal cytokine production and together may play a key role in the pathogenesis of SLE.2. GM1 may be available as a marker of SLE disease activity and therapy targeting lipid raft may provide a possability for the future therapy of SLE.