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Disturbed Th17/Treg balance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract

Proinflammatory Th17 cells and CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are two newly identified T lymphocyte subsets, which have opposite effects on autoimmunity and inflammation. To assess the Th17/Treg pattern and cytokine microenvironment in peripheral blood of patients with RA, we included 66 RA patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Of all these subjects, peripheral Th17 and Treg frequencies were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM) and the plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-17, 23, 6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 were detected by ELISA. The results demonstrated that RA patients revealed an obvious increase in peripheral Th17 frequencies and levels of Th17-related cytokines (IL-17, IL-23, IL-6, TNF-α) while a significant decrease in Treg frequencies and Treg-related cytokine (TGF-β1) levels when compared with healthy people. Our study indicated that development of RA is associated with peripheral Th17/Treg imbalance and characterized by a proinflammatory cytokine microenvironment, which supports continuing generation of Th17 cells.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the patients for donation of samples to the study, as well as the hospital staff who made this study possible. We also thank Yi Li and Bing Yang for helping process patient samples. We are very grateful to Prof. B. Ying for critical reading of the manuscript. This research was sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30670819, 30772051 and 30950010).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37, Guo Xue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, The People’s Republic of China

    Qian Niu, Bei Cai, Zhuo-chun Huang & Lan-lan Wang

  2. Department of Nephrology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37, Guo Xue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, The People’s Republic of China

    Yun-ying Shi

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  1. Qian Niu
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  2. Bei Cai
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  3. Zhuo-chun Huang
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  4. Yun-ying Shi
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  5. Lan-lan Wang
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Correspondence to Yun-ying Shi or Lan-lan Wang.

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Niu, Q., Cai, B., Huang, Zc. et al. Disturbed Th17/Treg balance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatol Int 32, 2731–2736 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-011-1984-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-011-1984-x

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