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T lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulin and complement levels are associated with the infection status of patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis

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Abstract

Background

Infection is the leading cause of death in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV). The aim of this study was to characterize the immunological features of infectious events occurring in patients with newly diagnosed AAV and to identify possible risk factors associated with infection.

Methods

The T lymphocyte subsets, immunoglobulin, and complement levels of the groups were compared between infected group and the noninfected group. Further, regression analysis was conducted to determine the association of each variable with the risk of infection.

Results

280 patients with newly diagnosed AAV were enrolled. The average levels of CD3+ T cells (720.0 vs. 920.5, P < 0.001), CD3+CD4+ T cells (392.0 vs. 547.0, P < 0.001), and CD3+CD8+ T cells (248.0 vs. 335.0, P = 0.001), serum IgG (11.66 g/L vs. 13.59 g/L, P = 0.002), IgA (1.70 g/L vs. 2.44 g/L, P < 0.001), C3 (1.03 g/L vs. 1.09 g/L, P = 0.015), and C4 (0.24 g/L vs. 0.27 g/L, P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the infected group than in the noninfected group. The levels of CD3+CD4+ T cells (adjusted OR 0.997, P = 0.018), IgG (adjusted OR 0.804, P = 0.004), and C4 (adjusted OR 0.001, P = 0.013) were found independently associated with infection.

Conclusions

Patients of infected AAV and those without infection differ in T lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulin and complement levels. Furthermore, CD3+CD4+ T cells counts and serum IgG and C4 levels were independent risk factors with infection in patients with newly diagnosed AAV.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

AAV:

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis

ANCA:

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody

SLE:

Systemic lupus erythematosus

LYMs:

Lymphocytes

BVAS:

The Birmingham vasculitis activity score system

FFS:

The Five-Factor Score

MPO:

Myeloperoxidase

PR3:

Proteinase 3

WBC:

White blood cells

NEU:

Neutrophils

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge all patients recruited in this study and are grateful to the doctors devoted to the establishment of our AAV database.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Rui Liu, Mengdi Li, Lei Zhang, Wei Li & Shengyun Liu

  2. Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Yan Wang

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  4. Yan Wang
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  5. Wei Li
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Contributions

MDL, LZ, and YW collected the data and performed the statistical analysis. RL wrote the draft and WL and SYL revised the draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei Li or Shengyun Liu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

This is an observational study. The Ethical Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Liu, R., Li, M., Zhang, L. et al. T lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulin and complement levels are associated with the infection status of patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis. Clin Exp Med 23, 2877–2884 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-023-01021-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-023-01021-4

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