title: [Effect of glucocorticoid on dendritic cells in children with chronic immune thrombocytopenia].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the change in dendritic cells (DCs) in children with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (cITP) and the effect of glucocorticoid on DCs in children with cITP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen children with cITP and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. Flow cytometry was used to measure the DC subsets count in the 15 children with cITP before and after glucocorticoid treatment as well as the corresponding values in the 20 healthy controls. The DCs derived from peripheral blood monocytes in children with cITP were cultured in vitro and collected, and their immunophenotypes were determined by flow cytometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Before glucocorticoid treatment, the children with cITP showed no notable change in the absolute count of myeloid DCs (mDCs) but showed decreased absolute count of plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and increased mDC/pDC ratio compared with the healthy controls (P<0.05). After glucocorticoid treatment, the children with cITP demonstrated increased absolute count of pDCs and decreased absolute count of mDCs and mDC/pDC ratio compared with before treatment (P<0.05). Before glucocorticoid treatment, the children with cITP had significantly higher positive rates of HLA-DR, CD80, CD83 and CD86 on peripheral blood DCs than the healthy controls (P<0.01). All the positive rates were significantly decreased after glucocorticoid treatment (P<0.01), so that there was no significant difference from the healthy controls (P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Disproportion and functional disturbance of DC subsets is associated with the pathogenesis of cITP in children. Glucocorticoid can strengthen the immunosuppression of DCs in children with cITP, which may contribute to the effectiveness of glucocorticoid as a treatment.
authors: Department of Hematology, Children's Hospital of Hunan, Changsha, China.
authors: Wen-Yong
authors: WY
authors: Kuang
authors: Min-Cui
authors: MC
authors: Zheng
authors: Guang-Sen
authors: GS
authors: Zhang
authors: Guo-Cai
authors: GC
authors: Song
authors: Wan-Li
authors: WL
authors: Li
authors: Hai-Xia
authors: HX
authors: Yang
authors: Xiao-Mei
authors: XM
authors: Jiang
authors: Ben-Shan
authors: BS
authors: Zhang
authors: Pan
authors: P
authors: Wu
authors: Yan-Yan
authors: YY
authors: Gu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids