PLoS ONE (Jan 2020)

The changes of the peripheral CD4+ lymphocytes and inflammatory cytokines in Patients with COVID-19.

  • Hua-Bao Sun,
  • Yi-Ming Zhang,
  • Li-Gui Huang,
  • Qi-Nan Lai,
  • Qun Mo,
  • Xin-Zhou Ye,
  • Tao Wang,
  • Zhong-Zhen Zhu,
  • Xiao-Lin Lv,
  • Yan-Ji Luo,
  • Shi-Ding Gao,
  • Jin-Song Xu,
  • Hao-Hao Zhu,
  • Ting Li,
  • Zhan-Ke Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239532
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 9
p. e0239532

Abstract

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To investigate the clinical value of changes in the subtypes of peripheral blood lymphocytes and levels of inflammatory cytokines in patients with COVID-19, the total numbers of lymphocytes and CD4+ lymphocytes and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ lymphocytes were calculated and observed in different groups of patients with COVID-19. The results show that the lymphocytopenia in patients with COVID-19 was mainly manifested by decreases in the CD4+ T lymphocyte number and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio. The decreased number of CD4+ T lymphocytes and the elevated levels of TNF-α and IL-6 were correlated with the severity of COVID-19 disease.