The Change And Pathological Significance Of Peripheral T Lymphocyte Subsets In Patients With Alopecia Areata

Objective:T lymphocytes have been found to play an important role in the pathological mechanism of Alopecia Areata. The peripheral T lymphocyte subsets in patients with Alopecia Areata and controls were examined to further explore their possible interactions and their different concrete effects on this disease.Methods:Peripheral blood samples of 82 patients who were diagnosed with Alopecia Areata in the Dermatology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University according to the diagnostic criteria presented in Clinical Dermatology (Written by Bian Zhao) during the period from July 2007 to January 2010 as well as of 40 controls were collected. Afterwards, the percentages of CD3, CD4, CD8 in every collected sample were determined respectively by flow cytometry.Results: In patients with localized alopecia areata, the expression percentage of CD3 was lower than that in controls (P=0.031); the expression percentage of CD4 was lower than that in controls too(P=0.006); whereas the expression percentage of CD8 showed no significant difference from that in controls(P=0.368). In patients with alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis, the expression percentage of CD3 was considerably lower than that in controls (P=0.001); the expression percentage of CD4 was lower than that in controls (P=0.023); notably, the expression percentage of CD8 was dramatically lower than that in controls (P=0.001). The expression percentage of CD3 and CD8 in patients with alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis was lower than that in localized alopecia areata; while there was no significant difference of the expression percentages of CD4 between these two groups. Conclusion: The decreased expression percentage of CD3 in patients with localized alopecia areata was mainly due to the drop of the CD4 percentage which was resulted from the increasing consuming inside the lesion sites as well as the promoted apoptosis in peripheral blood. While along with the falling CD4 percentage, the declined percentage of CD8 T lymphocytes also considerably contributed to the decreased level of CD3 in patients with alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. This result was led to by the promoted apoptosis induced by the rising soluble HLA class I molecules in vivo as the result of the more extensive affected lesion areas.