Study On Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subsets In Patients With Ankylosing Spondylitis And Its Associated Uveitis

Objective:To study the levels of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and the Th17 and Treg cells in CD4+T cell subsets in patients with ankylosing spondylitis(ankylosing spondylitis,AS)and its associated uveitis(acute uveitis,AU)and their correlation with ESR,CRP,BASDAI score.To explore the possible mechanism of recurrent uveitis in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.Methods:A total of 32 AS patients with AU were included in this study,including 21 males and 11 females,aged between 15 and 68 years,with an average age of 39.88 ±13.63 years,69 AS patients without AU and 75 normal controls.The sex and age of AS patients without AU and those of normal control group were matched with those of AS patients with AU.The clinical data and laboratory indexes of all AS patients were recorded in detail.Lymphocyte subsets and CD4 T cell subsets were detected by flow cytometry.All the experimental data were analyzed by SPSS20.0 software.Results:1.Compared with the normal control group,the total B and CD4 T cells in the AS group with AU were higher than those in the normal control group(P < 0.01),NK,Th2 cells decreased(P < 0.01),Treg cells decreased significantly(P < 0.001)and the ratio of Th17/Treg cells increased significantly(P < 0.001).There was no significant differencein total T,CD 8 T,Th1 and Th17 cells.2.Compared with AS patients without AU,Th2,Treg cells decreased and Th17/Treg increased significantly in AS group with AU(P < 0.001).There was no significant difference between total T and total T,CD 4 T,CD 8 T,NK,Th1,Th17 cells.3.Compared with the normal control group,the ratio of total B,T 2 cells and Th17/Treg cells in AS group increased,NK,CD4 T and Treg cells decreased(P < 0 01),but there was no significant difference in total T,T 8 T,Th1 and Th17 cells.4.There was no correlation between the ratio of Th17,Treg cells and Th17/Treg cells and disease activity in AS patients with AU,but there was a negative correlation between Treg cells and disease activity in AS patients.Conclusion:1.In patients with AS,Treg cells decreased,the ratio of Th17/Treg cells increased,and there was an imbalance of Th17/Treg cells,and Treg cells were negatively correlated with disease activity.2.The Treg cells of AS patients with AU were lower than those of AS patients without AU,the ratio of Th17/Treg cells was higher,and the ratio of Th17/Treg cells was more unbalanced,which suggested that the imbalance of Th17/Treg cells was the possible mechanism of AU in AS,but Treg cells.There was no correlation between Th17/Treg cell ratio and disease activity.