Autoimmunity

Biography

Biography: Xianming Mo

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to visualize the difference of immune cellular compositions in peripheral blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and healthy controls. Immune cells in the peripheral blood were obtained from 32 SLE patients and 16 healthy subjects. Circulating granulocytes, basophils, dendritic cells (DCs), monocytes, T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, CD127⁺ innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) and their subpopulations were identified by flow cytometry. The frequencies of T cells, CD4⁺ T cells, T regulatory cells (Tregs), CD127⁺CD8⁺ T, CD56⁺CD8⁺ T, CD25^hi B cells, NK cells, CD16⁺ NK, CD16^bright CD56^dim NK cells and CD127⁺ ILCs were decreased in SLE compared to healthy controls, while the proportion of granulocytes, CD8⁺ T cells, CD25⁺ DN T cells, CD16^- NK, CD16^-CD56^dim NK cells and CD4⁺CD127⁺ ILCs elevated in SLE. High expression of HLA-DR was identified on T cell subsets in SLE patients. Besides, the expressions of HLA-DR, CD11c and CD25 were higher on CD56^dim and CD56^bright NK cells in SLE. The proportion of B cells was negatively related with serum C3/C4 level, and was higher in the patients with anti-ribosomal (Rib) antibody positive. The frequency of CD25⁺CD56^bright NK was positively related with SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2k), and CD16⁺ NK cells was positively related with immunoglobulin G (IgG) while CD16^- NK cells was negatively correlated with IgG. Additionally, the frequency of CD127⁺CD8⁺ T cells was higher in the patients with mucocutaneous manifestations and in the patients with anti-ribonucleoprotein (RNP) antibody positive. The proportion of HLA-DR⁺CD56^bright NK cells was lower in the patients with the presence of anti-Sjögren’s-syndrome-related antigen A (SSA) antibody. Besides, the proportion of CD16⁺CD8⁺ T cells was higher in the patients with presence of Coombs test. A comprehensive peripheral immunophenotypic analysis including myeloid cells and lymphoid cells was performed and diverse abnormalities and alterations of peripheral immune cells were found in SLE patients.