title: Analysis of monocytic and granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells subsets in patients with hepatitis C virus infection and their clinical significance.
abstract: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been shown to inhibit T-cell responses in many diseases, but, in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients, MDSCs are still poorly studied. In this assay, we investigated the phenotype and frequency of two new populations of MDSCs denoted as monocytic and granulocytic MDSCs (M-MDSCs and G-MDSCs) in HCV infected patients and analyzed their clinical significance in these patients respectively. We found that the frequency of CD14(+)HLA-DR(-/low) cells (M-MDSCs) from HCV infected patients (mean ± SE, 3.134% ± 0.340%) was significantly increased when compared to healthy controls (mean ± SE, 1.764% ± 0.461%) (Z = -2.438, P = 0.015), while there was no statistical difference between the frequency of HLA-DR(-/low)CD33(+)CD11b(+)CD15(+) (G-MDSCs) of HCV infected patients and healthy donors (0.201% ± 0.038% versus 0.096% ± 0.026%, P > 0.05), which suggested that HCV infection could cause the proliferation of M-MDSCs instead of G-MDSCs. Besides, we found that the frequency of M-MDSCs in HCV infected patients had certain relevance with age (r = 0.358, P = 0.003); patients older than 40 years old group (mean ± SE, 3.673% ± 0.456%) had a significantly higher frequency of M-MDSCs than that of age less than 40 years old group (mean ± SE, 2.363% ± 0.482%) (Z = -2.685, P = 0.007). The frequency of M-MDSCs, however, had no correlation with HCV RNA loads, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and the level of liver inflammation degree.
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Gang
authors: G
authors: Ning
authors: Intranet of Guangzhou Woman and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Lanhui
authors: L
authors: She
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Yunnan, Kunming 650032, China.
authors: Lirong
authors: L
authors: Lu
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Yingfu
authors: Y
authors: Zeng
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Yan
authors: Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
authors: Chaoshuang
authors: C
authors: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006098:Granulocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000502:physiology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype