PAK5 Associated With Monocytes Activation In Peripheral Blood Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the percentage of circulating monocytes,the activated monocyte ratio,and the expression of PAK5 in total monocytes from pulmonary tuberculosis(TB)patients.Furthermore,we aimed to assess the relationship between PAK5 gene expression and monocyte activation in TB patients.Methods: The study included 39 adult patients with active pulmonary TB patients and 39 healthy controls matched by age(± 2 years)and gender.Peripheral blood of TB and control group were collected for full differential blood counting,cell staining and flow cytometry analysis,purification of monocytes,and RNA extraction and realtime quantitative PCR.Pearson correlation analysis was performed to estimate the association between PAK5 levels and HLA-DR expression.Results: The percentage of circulating monocytes increased in TB patients,which showed a significant statistical difference compared with healthy controls(11.1 ± 2.3% versus 5.3 ± 1.4%,respectively,P<0.001).Moreover,we found monocyte to lymphocyte ratio in patients with TB was significantly higher than in healthy subjects(0.49 ± 0.20 versus 0.16 ± 0.06,respectively,P<0.001).There was a significant increase of HLA-DR expression in monocytes in TB patients compared with healthy controls(20.6 ± 5.9% versus 8.3 ± 2.6%,respectively,P<0.001).The activated monocytes count(103/ml)from TB patients was also more than that from healthy controls with a significant statistical difference(19.4 ± 6.8 versus 5.7 ± 3.0,respectively,P<0.001).PAK5 m RNA in monocytes from TB patients(n=7)increased significantly compared to that from healthy controls(n=5)(0.94 ± 0.28 versus 0.53 ± 0.13,respectively,P=0.007).Furthermore,there appeared to exist a positive correlation(r S = 0.81,PS =0.001;n=12)between PAK5 m RNA and HLA-DR expression in monocytes.Conclusions: In this study,we find that HLA-DR expression which suggests a cell activation status in monocytes is prominently higher in TB patients than healthy controls.Moreover,PAK5 gene expression is elevated in monocytes from TB patients compared to that in healthy controls and significantly correlates with monocyte activation.