The Change And Significance Of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells In Peripheral Blood Of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Objective To explore the change and significance of plasmacytoid dendritic cells(pDC) in peripheral blood and serum concentrations of its related cytokineInterferon-α(INF-α), Interleukin-23(IL-23) in patients with Systemic LupusErythematosus (SLE).Method Sixty patients with SLE were diagnosed according to the SLE diagnosticcriteria of the American College of Rheumatology revised in1997andthirty healthy controls were enrolled in the study.2milliliters ofperipheral venous blood were collected and anticoagulated with EDTA fordetection of pDC and2milliliters of peripheral venous blood werecollected and plasma were exatracted for detection of INF-αand IL-23. Thechanges of amounts of pDC were assayed with micro-whole blood directimmunofuorescence staining and flow cytometry techniqued.The serumconcentrations of INF-α and IL-23were analyzed by enzyme linkedimmunosorbent assay(ELISA). SPSS13.0software was used for statisticalanalysis package to compare the difference of the comparative counting ofpDC and the expression level of INF-α and IL-23in peripheral bloodbetween SLE group and control group, analyse the correlations betweenpDC comparative counting and clinical manifestations.Result1. The comparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of patients with SLEis lower than those of normal control groups, the difference was statisticallysignificant (t=-9.961, p<0.001).2. The comparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of patients with active SLE patients is lower than those of patients with non-active SLE,the difference was statistically significant (t=4.153, p<0.002).3. The comparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of anti-dsDNAantibody positive group is lower than anti-dsDNA antibody negative group,the difference was statistically significant (t=-2.305, p=0.042). Thecomparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of SLE patients iscorrelated with serum dsDNA concentration (r=-0.740,p=0.009), and serumANA concentration (r=-0.758,p=0.007). No difference was found in SLEpDC comparative counting between anti-P0antibody（t=1.966，p=0.094）,anti-u1RNP antibody（t=0.781，p=0.443）, anti-Smith antibody（t=-0.718，p=0.481）, anti-histone antibody（t=-1.723，p=0.111）, anti-nucleosomeantibody（t=-1.387，p=0.188）, anti-SSA/Ro60antibody（t=0.123，p=0.904）,anti-SSA/Ro52antibody（t=0.372，p=0.714）, anti-SSB antibody（t=0.578，p=0.569）, positive group and negative group.4. The comparative counting of pDC in urine protein positive group is lowerthan that of urine protein negative group, the difference was statisticallysignificant(t=-3.028, p=-0.010). No statistical difference was found in SLEpDC comparative counting between patients with SLE with or withoutmalar erythema（t=-0.098，p=0.924）, hypersensitivity to light（t=0.296，p=0.772）, oral ulcer（st=-0.618，p=0.547） or arthriti（st=1.221，p=0.252）.5. The comparative counting of pDC in patents with SLE with leukopeniagroup is lower than patents with SLE without leukopeniagroup(t=-3.117, p=0.006). No statistical difference was found between thecomparative counting of pDC in SLE patents with thrombocytopenia groupand that of patents with SLE without thrombocytopenia（t=-1.418，p=0.170）(p>0.05). No correlation was found between comparativecounting of pDC with the serum concentration of C3（r=0.182，p=0.406），C4（r=0.279，p=0.0.197）, IgG（r=0.093，p=0.675）, IgA（r=0.118，p=0.591）, IgM（r=0.109，p=0.621） and CRP（r=-0.185，p=0.0.398）, ESR（r=-0.201，p=0.357）,and SLEDAI score（r=-0.181，p=0.408）. 6. The concentration of IFN-α in serum of patients with SLE is higher thanthat of healthy control group， the difference was statisticallysignificant(t=2.209, p=0.037). The concentration of IL-23in serum of SLEpatients is higher than that of healthy control group，the difference wasstatistically significant (t=-6.761, p<0.001). The comparative counting ofpDC has correlation with neither serum level of IFN-α（r=0.057，p=0.823） nor serum concentration of IL-23（r=0.088，p=0.727）.Conclusion1. The comparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of SLE patients issignificantly lower than that of normal people. The comparative counting ofpDC in peripheral blood of patients with active SLE is lower than thatof patients with non-active SLE.2. The comparative counting of pDC in peripheral blood of patients withSLE is related with state of SLE, detecting the comparative counting of pDCcan be valueed as clinical judgment in SLE disease activity and an index ofclinical therapeutic effects.3. The serum concentration of IFN-α and IL-23in SLE patients aresignificantly higher than those in normal people.