A prospective study of lymphocyte subpopulations and regulatory T cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection developing interferon‐induced thyroiditis

Abstract

Our results point to the immunomodulatory effects of IFN-α on different lymphocyte subpopulations and a possible role of Th1 response and Tregs in patients with HCV who developed IIT.

Regulatory T cells and other lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with melanoma developing interferon‐induced thyroiditis during high‐dose interferon‐α2b treatment

“…Our findings concur with the concept of immunomodulation of interferon treatment, described previously by our group in patients with hepatitis C virus infection . Indeed, a higher regulatory T cells percentage was found in interferon‐induced thyroiditis patients than in melanoma control group, mainly at the moment of interferon‐induced thyroiditis appearance, similar to those described by our group in hepatitis C virus patients during interferon‐α2b treatment . Our data suggest that the compensatory increase of regulatory T cells does not prevent the development of interferon‐induced thyroiditis, although future studies would be useful to improve understanding of regulatory T cells in the pathogenesis of interferon‐induced thyroiditis.…”

“…In our study, both IIT and Co‐MM patients presented a similar Tregs pattern throughout IFN‐α2b treatment, which might be explained by its immunomodulatory effects. These results concur with those recently published by our group in chronic HCV patients who developed IIT but disagree with those described by Ascierto et al . However, a different phenotypical characterization of Tregs was used in the two studies.…”

“…Several reports have associated regulatory T cells with the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, including AITD . However, to our knowledge, there are no previous reports on Tregs in melanoma patients who developed IIT.…”

“…After incubation, cells were washed and resuspended in flow cytometry staining buffer. Tregs (CD4 + CD25 + CD127 low/− FoxP3 + ) staining was performed as previously described . Cytoplasmic staining of Bcl‐2 on CD19 + B lymphocytes was performed in a similar manner to FoxP3 + staining, that is, after surface staining of CD19 + cells, cells were fixed/permeabilized and stained with Bcl‐2 or isotype control and incubated for 45 min at 4 °C in the dark.…”

“…Several authors have studied Tregs in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) . Our group described an increase in Tregs percentage in patients with chronic HCV infection who developed IIT during pegIFN‐α2a and ribavirin treatment . Due to the description of HCV infection itself as a risk factor for the development of thyroiditis, the aim of this study was to assess different lymphocyte subpopulations, mainly Tregs, in patients with melanoma and without HCV infection who developed IIT during IFN‐α2b treatment and evaluate their possible involvement in the appearance of this disease.…”