title: Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis Have Lower Frequency of nTregs in Peripheral Blood.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suffer from wide ranges of autoimmune reactions in joints. The mechanism of which is generally unknown and maybe associated with Treg deregulation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the frequency of nTregs in peripheral blood of patients with active rheumatoid disease with healthy individuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty five newly diagnosed patients with active RA disease were selected based on the clinical and laboratory criteria before starting their therapies. Treg cells in peripheral blood samples were enumerated by immune staining and flowcytometry analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical and laboratory results were in favor of active disease in all the studied patients although they showed variations in Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28). Compared to the healthy controls, RA patients had significantly lower frequency of CD4+CD25hi or CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ natural regulatory T cells. In spite of that, there were no significant differences between patients and healthy controls in respect to the CD4/CD8 ratio. Interestingly, more CD4+CD25-FoxP3+ cells were found in peripheral blood of patients. The frequencies of the Tregs did not show strong associations with the DAS-28.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We showed lower abundance of nTregs in peripheral blood of RA patients which highlights the significance of these cells in RA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran, e-mail: zareh80@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Hamid-Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Habibagahi
authors.forename: Akbar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vahdati
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Habibagahi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology*; D001775:Blood Circulation; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D002469:Cell Separation; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D053645:Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015704:CD4 Antigens; C418974:FOXP3 protein, human; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D053645:Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit