title: [Detection of Th17/treg cell-associated cytokines in peripheral blood of patients with graft-versus-host disease and its clinical significance].
abstract: To investigate the peripheral levels and clinical significance of Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines in patients with acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) or chronic GVHD (cGVHD), blood samples were collected from 39 hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation patients and 20 healthy donors. The patients included 10 patients with aGVHD, 13 patients with cGVHD and 16 patients without evidence of GVHD. Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines such as IFNγ, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TGF-β(1), IL-17 and IL-23 were detected by ELISA. The results showed that the plasma levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-6, IL-17 and IL-23 significantly increased in patients with aGVHD or cGVHD, compared with the patients without clinical signs of GVHD and the healthy donors (p < 0.05), while IL-10 and TGF-β(1) were obviously lower than that of them (p < 0.05). After aGVHD and cGVHD patients were treated effectively, the plasma levels of IL-6, IL-17 and IL-23 were significantly decreased, and IL-10, TGF-β(1) were significantly increased, while the levels of IFN-γ and IL-4 did not markedly change. The TGF-β(1) level were negatively correlated with IL-6 (r = -0.36, p < 0.05), IL-17 (r = -0.51, p < 0.05) and IL-23 (r = -0.44, p < 0.05) respectively, while there were positive correlations between IL-6 and IL-17 (r = 0.62, p < 0.05), IL-6 and IL-23 (r = 0.71, p < 0.05), IL-17 and IL-23 (r = 0.93, p < 0.05). It is concluded that Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines may play an important role in the development of a/cGVHD, which helps to find novel targets for developing new strategies of GVHD treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230001, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xin-Bing
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hui-Lan
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Liang-Quan
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.forename: Kai-Yang
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Zi-Min
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000097:blood; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000097:blood; D053759:Interleukin-23 / Q000097:blood; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000378:metabolism*; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000097:blood; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D020381:Interleukin-17; D053759:Interleukin-23; D015850:Interleukin-6; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1; D016753:Interleukin-10