January 31, 2014

Gene expression pattern of Treg and TCR Vγ subfamily T cells before and after specific immunotherapy in allergic rhinitis

Research

Open AccessGene expression pattern of Treg and TCR Vγ subfamily T cells before and after specific immunotherapy in allergic rhinitis

Rui Zheng1Xiuli Wu2Xuekun Huang1Yulian Chen1Qintai Yang1*Yangqiu Li2 andGehua Zhang1
  • *Corresponding author: Qintai Yang yang.qt@163.com
  • † Equal contributors
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital, SUN Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China
2Institute of Hematology, Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
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Journal of Translational Medicine 2014, 12:24  doi:10.1186/1479-5876-12-24

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/12/1/24

Received:22 November 2013
Accepted:20 January 2014
Published:25 January 2014
© 2014 Zheng et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Abstract

Background

T regulatory cell (Treg) plays a critical role in respiratory allergy and allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT), and γδ T cells might participate in mediating Treg quantity and/or function in some immunological diseases. To further characterize whether γδ T cells could influence Treg in allergic rhinitis (AR) and SIT, we investigated the expression pattern of Treg’s Foxp3 gene and γδ T cell receptor (TCR) Vγ subfamily genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of AR patients before and after SIT.

Methods

Eighteen AR patients undergoing effective SIT with house dust mite extract for one year were recruited. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was applied to evaluate the severity. Immunofluorescence quantification analysis was performed to determine the serum specific IgE (sIgE) content. Real-time PCR was used to detect the expression levels of Foxp3 and TCR Vγ subfamilies. Ten healthy volunteers were recruited as the controls.

Results

Nasal uni-VAS score after SIT was significantly lower than that before SIT, while serum sIgE content was similar before and after SIT. Expression levels of Foxp3 and TCR Vγ subfamilies in AR patients before treatment were significantly lower than those in healthy subjects. Expression levels of VγI and II were similar before and after SIT, while expression levels of Foxp3 and VγIII after SIT were significantly higher than those before. Before SIT, the significant positive correlation was observed between expression levels of Foxp3 and VγI, II, III, while negative correlation was observed between Foxp3, VγIII and VAS. After SIT, the significant positive correlation between expression levels of Foxp3 and VγIII and negative correlation between Foxp3, VγIII and VAS were observed.

Conclusions

Treg and Vγ subfamily T cells were in a dynamic equilibrium in AR patients before and after effective immunotherapy for one year. The early improvement of symptoms following immunotherapy might be independent of the serum sIgE content in AR patients, but associated with the reconstitution of T cell immunity.
Keywords: 
Allergic rhinitis; Specific immunotherapy; Foxp3; Treg; γδ T cells

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