Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2017; 23(21): 3832-3838
Published online Jun 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i21.3832
Clinical significance of changes in the Th17/Treg ratio in autoimmune liver disease
Ting-Ting Feng, Ting Zou, Xin Wang, Wei-Feng Zhao, Ai-Lan Qin
Ting-Ting Feng, Ting Zou, Xin Wang, Wei-Feng Zhao, Ai-Lan Qin, Department of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by the Tianqing Liver Disease Research Foundation, China Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control, No. TQGB20150026; and Kejiaoxingwei Project of Suzhou, No. KJXW2016004.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: We state that all the final research data in this study will be shared for use by other researchers, and no additional unpublished data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Ai-Lan Qin, Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 899 Pinghai Road Gusu District, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China. cnailanqin@163.com
Telephone: +86-512-67780365 Fax: +86-512-67780365
Received: November 26, 2016
Peer-review started: November 28, 2016
First decision: December 28, 2016
Revised: February 21, 2017
Accepted: April 12, 2017
Article in press: April 12, 2017
Published online: June 7, 2017
Processing time: 192 Days and 20.7 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the levels, ratios, and clinical significance of T helper 17 (Th17) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells in the peripheral blood of patients with autoimmune liver disease (AILD).

METHODS

Forty-two AILD patients were included in the experimental group (group E), and 11 healthy subjects were recruited as the control group (group C). Flow cytometry was performed to determine the percentages of Th17 and Treg cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Furthermore, a range of biochemical indices was measured simultaneously in the blood of group E patients.

RESULTS

The percentage of Th17 cells and the Th17/Treg ratio were higher in group E than in group C (P < 0.01), whereas the percentage of Tregs was lower in the group E patients (P < 0.05). Patients in group E who were admitted with AILD in the active stage showed significantly higher Th17 percentages and Th17/Treg ratios than those measured in patients with AILD in remission (P < 0.05). In addition, among patients with AILD in the active stage, individuals that remained unhealed after hospitalization showed significantly higher baseline values of the Th17 percentage and the Th17/Treg ratio than those detected in patients who improved after treatment (P < 0.05). The results suggested that imbalance in the Th17/Treg ratio plays an important role in the pathogenesis and development of AILD.

CONCLUSION

A high Th17/Treg ratio appears to predict poor short-term prognosis in patients with AILD in the active stage.

Keywords: Autoimmune liver disease; Helper T cell 17; Regulatory T cells; Short-term prognosis

Core tip: This study investigated the levels, ratios, and clinical significance of T helper 17 (Th17) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells in the peripheral blood of patients with autoimmune liver disease (AILD). The results suggested that an imbalance in the Th17/Treg ratio plays an important role in the pathogenesis and development of AILD. A high Th17/Treg ratio appears to predict poor short-term prognosis in patients with AILD in the active stage.