Expression of peripheral blood T lymphocytes and mitochondrial damages in T cell subsets among patients with chronic schizophrenia
Objective To investigate the expression of peripheral blood T lymphocytes and mitochondrial damages in T cell sub-sets among patients with chronic schizophrenia and its clinical significance.Methods A total of 153 patients with chronic schizo-phrenia were enrolled,and the expression of peripheral blood T lymphocyte subpopulations and mitochondrial dysfunctions in T cell sub-sets were detected using flow cytometry.All patients were assigned into the positive mitochondrial damage group(n=53)and negative mitochondrial damage group(n=100)according to mitochondrial damage index,and the difference in the immune functions was com-pared between the two groups.The negative syndromes of schizophrenia were scored with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS),and the correlation between peripheral blood T lymphocyte levels and PANSS score for negative syndromes of schizophrenia was evaluated with linear correlation analyses.Results Both the PANSS sore for negative syndromes[(32.09±4.15)vs.(41.13± 4.77);t=12.170,P<0.001]and PANSS total score[(90.14±6.16)vs.(103.8±6.17);t=13.090,P<0.001]were significantly lower in the negative mitochondrial damage group than in the positive mitochondrial damage group.The proportions of CD4+[(34.83%±7.71%)vs.(28.37%±7.84%);t=4.901,P<0.05],CD3+[(67.23%±8.99%)vs.(63.64%±10.05%);t=2.258,P<0.05]and CD8+T cells[(25.60%±7.74%)vs.(21.91%±7.17%);t=2.87,P<0.05]were significantly greater in the negative mitochondrial damage group than in the positive mitochondrial damage group,and the CD4+/CD8+ratio was significantly lower in the negative mitochondrial damage group than in the positive mitochondrial damage group[1.64±0.68 vs.1.96±0.81;t=2.622,P<0.05].The absolute counts of CD3+T cells[(1 565.0±462.4)cells/μL vs.(986.0±320.0)cells/μL;t=8.135,P<0.05],CD4+T helper cells[(887.9±319.0)cells/μL vs.(607.3±251.5)cells/μL;t=5.552,P<0.05]and cytotoxic CD8+T cells[(591.0±232.6)cells/μ.L vs.(328.1±104.6)cells/μL;t=7.813,P<0.05]were significantly higher in the negative mitochondrial damage group than in the positive mitochondrial damage group,and the levels of cytotoxic CD8+T cells appeared a negative linear correlation with the PANSS sore for negative syn-dromes of schizophrenia among patients with chronic schizophrenia(r=-0.210,P=0.009).Conclusions There is a remarkable de-cline in the immunological indicators and more remarkable immunosuppression among patients with chronic schizophrenia and positive mitochondrial damages in T cell subsets.