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The aberrant expression of CD45 isoforms and levels of sex hormones in systemic lupus erythematosus

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Abstract

Introduction

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a common autoimmune disease with significant gender bias in women, and sex hormones are considered to play an important role in the regulation of immune activity. The CD45 isoforms generated through alternative splicing of mRNA identify different functional status of lymphocytes and also are suggested as a biomarker for assessing the progression of SLE, while the modulation of CD45 expression in SLE patients is not clear.

Methods

In this study, the peripheral blood sera of 46 SLE patients and 15 health individuals were collected for detecting the levels of sex hormones and immune associated factors. The expression of CD45 isoforms and the status of CD45 DNA methylation of the peripheral mononuclear blood cells were detected by flow cytometry and bisulfite sequencing PCR, respectively.

Results

The levels of complement C3 and IgA decreased, especially decline of the serum IgA to the level of selective immunoglobulin A deficiency, and the C-reactive protein increased in SLE patients when compared with healthy controls, which manifested the abnormal immune activity of the SLE patients. Sex hormones detection showed a decreased testosterone and increased prolactin in SLE. An accelerated expression of CD45RO, reduced CD45RA and CD45RB, and a relative hypermethylation of CD45 DNA in SLE were also identified that provided a clue to explain the possible regulatory mechanism for the immune function in SLE.

Conclusion

The results indicated that the aberrant CD45 isoforms, DNA methylation and hormone levels might be correlated with the imbalanced immune activity of SLE patients.

Key Points

• Selective immunoglobulin A deficiency was significantly higher in SLE than in healthy individuals.

• SLE patients had decreased testosterone and increased prolactin in the sera.

• An aberrant expression of CD45 isoforms and CD45 DNA methylation were identified in SLE.

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Data availability

Data are available to the author group.

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Funding

This work was supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31870745) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2018A0303130153).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Histology and Embryology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, Guangdong Province, China

    Zhaoxia Dong, Bin Zhang & Zhongjing Su

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, 57 Changping Road, Shantou, 515041, Guangdong Province, China

    Ju Rong

  3. Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, Guangdong Province, China

    Xinran Yang, Yongni Wang & Qiaoxin Zhang

  4. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Immunopathology, Shantou University Medical College, 22 Xinling Road, Shantou, 515041, Guangdong Province, China

    Zhongjing Su

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  1. Zhaoxia Dong
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All authors made substantial contributions to the conception of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data. All authors approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qiaoxin Zhang or Zhongjing Su.

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Zhaoxia Dong and Bin Zhang contributed equally to this work.

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Dong, Z., Zhang, B., Rong, J. et al. The aberrant expression of CD45 isoforms and levels of sex hormones in systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Rheumatol 41, 1087–1093 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-021-05934-x

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