REGULATORY T-CELLS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES

Abstract

Children and teenagers aged 10-17 years old with juvenile arthritis (n=99), with reactive arthritis (n=21), with systemic sclerosis (n=16), with systemic lupus erythematosus (n=14) and conditionally healthy (n=32) are investigated. It’s revealed by the method of flow cytometry that quantity of regulatory T-cells (CD3+CD4+CD25+CD127low/neg) in children with juvenile arthritis, with reactive arthritis and with systemicsclerosis was lower than in the control group. The amount of Treg in children with systemic lupus erythematosus was the same to the control level. The decrease of Treg number in most of investigated groups indicates that these cells are involved in the pathogenesis of an autoimmune diseases in children. It’s remaining unknown what’s the reason of normal Treg content in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in contrast with other autoimmune diseases. There were positive correlation between the percentage of Treg and the amount ofdamaged joints in children with reactive arthritis and negative correlation between the amount of Treg and SLEDAI in children with systemic lupus erythematosus. The significant correlations between the numbers of CD3+CD25+, CD3+CD4+CD25+ and Treg were revealed, so there isn’t any reasonability of estimation of CD3+ and CD4+cells which are expressed CD25 as separate parameters.

Keywords

• regulatory t-cells
• juvenile arthritis
• autoimmune diseases
• children