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Prevalence of Epstein–Barr virus infection and characteristics of lymphocyte subsets in newly onset juvenile dermatomyositis

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Abstract

Background

The underlying etiology of juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is unknown. T cell deficiency as well as Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection had been suspected to be involved in the pathogenesis, but it has been poorly evaluated in JDM patients.

Methods

This study described the traits of T and B lymphocyte subsets in newly onset JDM patients and the incidence of EBV infection in JDM patients compared with match controls. Newly developed JDM patients from 2014 to 2018 were included in the study. Lymphocytes with different markers (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD3−CD19+ and CD3−CD16+CD56+) were tested with flow cytometry in the first admission or after 6 months of treatment. Statistical analysis was conducted to compare the EBV infection in the group of JDM patients and controls.

Results

We observed that JDM patients had higher positive rate of Epstein–Barr nuclear antigen-immunoglobulin G (IgG) (P < 0.0001) as well as EBV capsid antigen-IgG (P < 0.05) than normal controls. CD3−CD16+CD56+ lymphocyte was found to be extremely low in early stage of JDM patients, but increased after 6 months of treatment (P = 0.0091).

Conclusions

The level of CD3−CD16+CD56+ cells may associate with the clinical course of JDM. EBV may act as an environmental factor predisposing patients to the development of JDM.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the Leukemia Lab of Children’s Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine for flow cytometry. We also want to thank all participating patients and volunteers for their support.

Funding

This work was supported by Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Project (No. 2017KY440).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 57# Zhu Gan Road, Hangzhou, 310000, China

    Qi Zheng, Cai-Na Gao, Yi-Ping Xu & Mei-Ping Lu

  2. Department of Pathology, Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

    Kun Zhu

Authors
  1. Qi Zheng
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  2. Kun Zhu
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  3. Cai-Na Gao
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  4. Yi-Ping Xu
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Contributions

QZ contributed to manuscript writing. KZ contributed to histopathological examination. CNG contributed to statistical analysis. YPX contributed to sample collection and patient informed consent. MPL contributed to paper editing. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mei-Ping Lu.

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Ethical approval

The study was approved by the pediatric review board committee (approval number: 2019-IRB-099), and informed consent from patients and healthy individuals was acquired before the study.

Conflict of interest

No financial or nonfinancial benefits have been received or will be received from any party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.

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Zheng, Q., Zhu, K., Gao, CN. et al. Prevalence of Epstein–Barr virus infection and characteristics of lymphocyte subsets in newly onset juvenile dermatomyositis. World J Pediatr 17, 205–209 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-019-00314-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-019-00314-7

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