title: [Conventional dose of prednisone regulates Th-associated gene expression in de novo ITP patients].
abstract: This study was aimed to investigate the T cell (helper T cells) immune status in ITP patients and its relation with therapeutic response. 20 de novo ITP patients were enrolled (8 males, 12 females) with a median age of 41 (20 to 81). Real-time RT-PCR method was used to measure the gene expression of Th cells including T-bet, IFN-γ, GATA-3, TGF-β, Foxp3, IL-2, IL-4 in PBMNC of ITP patients before and after conventional dose of prednisone therapy [1 mg/(kg·d)] and in PBMNC of 20 normal controls. The results showed that T-bet, IFN-γ and IL-2 were significantly over-expressed in PBMNC of ITP patients before treatment compared with that in normal controls (p < 0.01), and compared with that before treatment, T-bet, IFN-γ, and IL-2 were markedly down-regulated in ITP patients after treatment. Before treatment, the expressions of Foxp3, TGF-β, GATA3 and IL-4 in ITP patients did not show difference from normal controls, while after treatment Foxp3 were more up-regulated than that before treatment (p < 0.05). After treatment, TGF-β expression showed a different pattern between old and young patients. TGF-β expression was down-regulated (p < 0.05) among ITP patients younger than 60, while up-regulated in older patients. It is concluded that there is an imbalance of Th1/Th2/Treg cytokines in ITP patients, which can be reversed by glucocorticoid treatment. The conventional dose of glucocorticoid may be regarded as effective therapy for de novo ITP patients, it may correlate with improvement of imbalance between Th1/The2/Treg cytokines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bo-Ting
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wei-Guang
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yan-Xia
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Shan-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Yun-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D020825:T-Box Domain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000378:metabolism; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult; D000098815:T-bet Transcription Factor
chemical_list: C418974:FOXP3 protein, human; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D007376:Interleukin-2; D020825:T-Box Domain Proteins; D000098815:T-bet Transcription Factor; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D007371:Interferon-gamma