Levels Of Expression Of Regulatory T Cells And IL-35 In Peripheral Blood From Patients With Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis

Background and objective:Hepatic alveolar echinococcosis is a parasitic disease caused by infection of echinococcus alveolaris.Both human and livestock suffer from it.It is mainly popular in the Western Pastoral Areas of China.Infection of echinococcus alveolaris can induce immune regulation system and promote immune tolerance to human body,so that it can facilitate the long-term parasitism in vivo.The mechanism of inducing immune tolerance is a complex immune regulatory system involving multiple effect cells which includes helper T cells and regulatory T cells.In the host,the inflammatory response that promotes the parasitic death and the immunosuppression of the host's immune tolerance to the parasite,two strands forces each other to balance each other and eventually lead to the chronic infection course of the hepatic alveolar echinococcosis.In this mechanism,Th17/Treg balance plays an important role in the regulation of immune response.Th17 cells mainly promotes the inflammatory response of echinococcosis,and Treg cells can inhibit the immune system by secreting many kinds of related inhibitory cytokines.In particular,the interleukins-35 is a newly discovered cytokine secreted by Treg cells,which plays an important role in regulating the function of Treg cells,and has not yet been reported in the field of research on echinococcosis.In this study,the level of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells and IL-35 in the peripheral blood of the patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis was detected.To investigate the role of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow regulatory T cells and interleukin-35 in the development of alveolar echinococcosis.Methods:Between January 2017 and September 2017,17 patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis who were treated at Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital and 17 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study.They were divided into two groups:hepatic alveolar echinococcosis group and healthy volunteers control group.The peripheral blood of subjects was collected to detect the levels of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells and IL-35.The experimental data were statistically described and analyzed using statistical methods to compare the differences in the expression of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells and related cytokines IL-35 in peripheral blood of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis and healthy volunteers.The peripheral blood of the patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis was collected again on the seventh day after operation to detect the level of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells and IL-35,and the changes were compared with those before the operation.Results:In this study,the proportion of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells to CD4+T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with hepatic echinococcosis was 4.68 to 10.30(7.97±1.47)%,and the control group was 5.09 to 9.25(6.65±0.99)%,the difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P<0.01).The level of IL-35 in peripheral blood of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis was 66.24 to 101.23(81.26±10.42)pg/ml,and the control group was 19.59 to 79.64(42.61±17.80)pg/ml,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.001).In peripheral blood of the patients with hepatic echinococcosis,IL-35 and CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells increased synchronously,and linear correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between the two groups(R=0.5667,P=0.0101).On the seventh day after operation,the proportion of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells to CD4~+T cells in peripheral blood of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis accounted for 4.29 to 8.29(6.23±1.10)%,compared with the pre operation and the health control groups,the difference between them was statistically significant(F=9.65,P<0.001).After operation,the group was lower than the pre operation group,and the difference was statistically significant(t=3.05,P<0.001),and there was no statistical difference between the postoperative group and the healthy control group(t=1.19,P>0.05).On the seventh day after operation,IL-35 in peripheral blood of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis was 29.24~71.24(51.90±11.78)pg/ml,compared with the pre operation and the health control groups,the difference between them was statistically significant(F=36.79,P<0.001).After operation,the group was lower than the pre operation group,and the difference was statistically significant(t=7.70,P<0.001),and there was no statistical difference between the postoperative group and the healthy control group(t=1.79,P>0.05).Conclusion:This study for the first time found that the expression level of IL-35 in peripheral blood of patients with hepatic echinococcosis was significantly higher than that in healthy volunteers,and was positively correlated with the increase of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells.This phenomenon suggests that CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells and IL-35 may participate in the immune response process of patients infected with echinococcosis alveolaris.Moreover,the role of CD4~+CD25~+CD127~lowow Treg cells may be related to IL-35.They may be related to the development of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis.