Nature and Science of Sleep (Jun 2024)
Differences and Risk Factors of Peripheral Blood Immune Cells in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Abstract
Ying Jiang,1,* Chuankai Lin,1,* Min Xu,2,* Taiwen Zhu,1 Xuhong Li,1 Wei Wang1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, People’s Republic of China; 2Medical and Nursing School, Wuhan Railway Vocational College of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wei Wang, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15071128246, Email [email protected]: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a respiratory disorder characterized by chronic intermittent hypoxia and fragmented sleep, leading to inflammatory response and oxidative stress. However, the differences in immune inflammatory response in OSA patients with different severity remain unclear.Purpose: This study aims to examine the differences in peripheral blood immune cells and their risk factors in OSA patients.Patients and Methods: A total of 277 snoring patients from the Sleep Respiratory Disorder Monitoring Center of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University were recruited in this study. According to the diagnosis and severity criteria of OSA, the included patients were further divided into simple snoring, mild, moderate, and severe groups. Peripheral blood immune cell counts including white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, red blood cells, platelets, and polysomnography indicators were collected from the patients.Results: Compared with simple snoring patients, the OSA patients had increased circular monocyte and basophil count levels. In addition, correlation analysis results indicated that monocyte count was positively associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), smoking, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), the longest apnea duration, and Oxygen desaturation index (ODI), and negatively correlated with average SpO2 in snoring patients. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that AHI, COPD, smoking, and maximum heart rate were independent predictors of monocyte count.Conclusion: OSA patients had a significant increase in their peripheral blood monocyte count. AHI, COPD, smoking, and maximum heart rate were risk factors for increased peripheral blood monocyte count in OSA patients. These findings suggest that peripheral blood monocytes can be considered an inflammatory biomarker of OSA.Keywords: obstructive sleep apnea, peripheral blood cell count, monocytes, polysomnography, inflammatory biomarker
