Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Role of T Follicular Helper Cells in Clinical Remission and Relapse in Patients with Pemphigus Treated with Rituximab
Ayşe Akman Karakaş
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Erkan Ergün
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Nurten Sayın Ekinci
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Aslı Toylu
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Soner Uzun
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Erkan Alpsoy
; Akdeniz Univercity, Antalya, Turkey
Sažetak
Background: Pemphigus is a rare chronic autoimmune disease. Recent studies
have found that T follicular helper (Tfh) cells may play a role in autoimmune dis-
eases. In this study, Tfh cells frequency, BCL6 gene expression, IL-21, and IL-6 cy-
tokines levels were examined, with the aim of understanding the effect of RTX on
these cells in the onset of clinical remission or relapse in patients with pemphigus.
Methods: 20 patients with pemphigus vulgaris and 20 healthy controls without
any autoimmune diseases that were admitted to the Dermatology and Venere-
ology Clinic of the Akdeniz University Hospital were included. Peripheral blood
sample was taken from all individuals and studied to analyze Tfh cell distribution,
IL-21 and IL-6 distribution in CD3+CD4+CXCR5+ lymphocytes with flow cytom-
etry, plasma IL-21 levels with ELISA, and mRNA levels that refer to BCL6 expression
with PCR.
Results: Circulating Tfh cell distribution and IL-21 and IL-6 distribution in
CD3+CD4+CXCR5+ lymphocytes and mRNA levels that refer to BCL6 expression
showed no difference between patient and control groups. However, in patients
who had received rituximab treatment there was a significant reduction in Tfh
cells compared with other groups. Plasma IL-21 levels were significantly higher in
the patient group.
Conclusions: We found that plasma concentrations of the cytokine IL-21 were
greatly increased in the pemphigus compared with the control group. There were
no significant differences in Tfh cell percentages between the patient and control
groups. Tfh cells were decreased in patients who received rituximab treatment.
Our findings show that the response to RTX in pemphigus causes a reduction in
circulating T follicular helper cells, but not in the plasma IL-21 level. Further stud-
ies are required to clarify the role of Tfh cells in pemphigus vulgaris.
Ključne riječi
T follicular helper; pemphigus; BCL6, IL21
Hrčak ID:
311637
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.6.2023.
Posjeta: 167 *