Increase of circulating CD4+CD25+ T cells in myasthenia gravis patients with stability and thymectomy.
BACKGROUND
CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells are key controllers of peripheral immunological self-tolerance and suppress various autoimmune diseases in animal models, but few studies have been done to define their roles in myasthenia gravis (MG) so far.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate frequencies and dynamic changes of blood CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells from MG patients.


METHODS
The peripheral blood CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells of 29 MG patients and 23 healthy controls were detected by three-color flow cytometry.


RESULTS
Myasthenic patients with symptomatically uncontrollable disease showed slightly lower percentages of CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells (mean = 3.79 +/- 1.40%; P = 0.12), whereas MG patients with clinically stable disease had significantly increased CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells (mean = 8.45 +/- 1.96%, P = 0.0001), as compared with healthy controls (mean = 4.53 +/- 0.96%). In addition, thymectomized MG patients had significantly higher percentages of CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells (mean = 8.44 +/- 2.39%), as compared with both non-thymectomized MG patients (mean = 5.88 +/- 2.89%, P = 0.038) and healthy controls (P = 0.003).


CONCLUSIONS
Our observations indicate that increased percentages of CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells in MG patients may be related to disease stability and that thymectomy in patients with MG resulted in augmented CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells.
Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China. yisun9696@yahoo.com.cn
Yi
Y
Sun
Jian
J
Qiao
Chuan-Zhen
CZ
Lu
Chong-Bo
CB
Zhao
Xin-Mei
XM
Zhu
Bao-Guo
BG
Xiao
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology*; D013934:Thymectomy
D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2