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Abnormal histone acetylation of CD8+ T cells in patients with severe aplastic anemia

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Abstract

Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) is a rare autoimmune disease characterized by severe pancytopenia and bone marrow failure, which is caused by activated T lymphocytes. In the present study, we evaluated histone H3 acetylation levels of bone marrow CD8+ T cells in SAA patients, and analyzed its correlation with clinical condition parameters. We found that the percentages of CD8+ T cell histone H3 acetylation in patients with untreated SAA, recovering SAA (R-SAA) and normal control, were 1.21 ± 0.08, 1.05 ± 0.36, and 1.00 ± 0.41, respectively, with no significant statistical differences. However, the amount of CD8+ T cell histone H3 acetylation from untreated SAA was 176.21 ± 32.22 μg/mg protein, which was significantly higher than that of complete response (CR)-SAA (104.29 ± 62.06 μg/mg protein) and normal control (133.94 ± 56.27 μg/mg protein) (P < 0.05) groups. Moreover, histone H3 acetylation amount of CD8+ T cell was significantly and negatively correlated with absolute neutrophil count, proportion of reticulocytes, ratio of CD4+ to CD8+ T cell in peripheral blood, and percentage of bone marrow erythroid (P < 0.05). To some extent, it also negatively correlated with hemoglobin level, platelet count, percentage of bone marrow granulocyte, and megakaryocyte count. Abnormal histone H3 acetylation of CD8+ T cells may thus play a role in the immune pathogenesis of SAA.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81170472; 81370607; and 81400085), Tianjin Medical University General Hospital funding (303070401301), Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation (12JCZDJC21500), Tianjin Cancer Research of Major Projects (12ZCDZSY17900 and 12ZCDZSY18000), and Tianjin Science and Technology Support Key Projects (20140109).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Hematology, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, 154 Anshandao, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China

      Weiwei Qi, Li Yan, Chunyan Liu, Rong Fu, Huaquan Wang & Zonghong Shao

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    1. Weiwei Qi
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    2. Li Yan
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    3. Chunyan Liu
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    Correspondence to Zonghong Shao.

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    W. Qi, Li Yan, and C. Liu contributed equally to this work.

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    Qi, W., Yan, L., Liu, C. et al. Abnormal histone acetylation of CD8+ T cells in patients with severe aplastic anemia. Int J Hematol 104, 540–547 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-016-2061-8

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-016-2061-8

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