Changes and clinical significance of CD8+CD122+ T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with ankylosing spondylitis

Abstract

The aim of our study was to explore the relationship between circulating T cells and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and to find the role of the CD8+CD122+ T cells in the pathogenesis and progression of AS. With the method of case-control design, flow cytometry was performed to quantitatively determine the percentage of circulating CD8CD122 T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from established AS patients and age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-2, interleukin-10, interleukin-15, TGF-β1, and TNF-ɑ were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The t test was used to compare differences between groups, correlation analysis with Spearman rank test and Pearson correlation was performed. The percentage of circulating CD8CD122 T cells were significantly increased in AS patients compared with controls (Z = - 4.917, P = 0.001). Plasma IL-2, IL-10, IL-15, TGF-β1, and TNF-ɑ levels between cases and controls were analyzed but no statistically significant differences were found. The percentage of circulating CD8CD122 T cells were not significantly different in the two groups of patients with AS whether they were treated or not. In addition, the percentage of circulating CD8CD122 T cells was positively correlated with disease duration, CRP, and ASDAS-CRP. The CD8CD122 T cells in the peripheral blood of AS patients may be involved in the development of AS, and they may coordinate regulate inflammation and immune dysregulation in patients with AS, which may play an important role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of AS.

The Proportion of Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Meta-Analysis

“…In 2015, Churland G. et al [61] have found that the proportion of CD8 + Tregs in the peripheral blood of healthy people is less than one-tenth of that of CD4 + Tregs, which makes the study of CD8 + Tregs more difficult. In this study, we found that only one study [21] reported the expression of CD8 + Treg in peripheral blood of patients with AS, and a comprehensive analysis showed that there was a higher proportion of CD8 + Treg in AS group than in the healthy control group. The specific marker, expression, and function of CD8 + Treg need further study.…”

“…To further assess the effect of disease activity, we analyzed 2 studies [9, 21] that reported the proportion of Tregs in active and stable AS patients regardless of the Tregs definitions used (Figure 3). All of these 2 studies used the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) [42–44] to evaluate the disease activity.…”

“…All of these 2 studies used the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) [42–44] to evaluate the disease activity. Guo H. et al [9] found no significant differences in the percentages of Tregs among patients with active AS and patients with stable AS, but Han R. et al [21] showed a significant increase. We found no difference in the proportion of Tregs in patients with active compared with stable AS [−0.234, (−3.267, 2.799), p = 0.880].…”

“…It is now widely accepted that Treg cells play a key role in the maintenance of immune tolerance and homeostasis [3, 45]. However, the role of Tregs in peripheral immune tolerance in patients with AS has not been fully elucidated in previous studies [7, 21, 31]. During the process, the markers used in the identification of Tregs are inconsistent by flow cytometry in previous studies; therefore, the proportion of peripheral Treg of AS patients has always been reported controversially [5, 24, 29, 46].…”

“…Zhao et al used CD25 + CD127 − to define peripheral Tregs in new-onset AS patients firstly [6]. Furthermore, CD8 + CD122 + T cell is a newly discovered natural immune regulatory T cells with immune negative regulation function [20], which may be involved in the pathogenesis and disease progression of AS [21]. The available data on the proportions and phenotypes of Tregs of AS patients are contradictory; some studies using the same or different markers to analyze peripheral Tregs of AS patients have obtained different or even opposite results [22–25].…”