A preliminary study on the changes of Tfh and Tfr cells and related factors in peripheral blood of patients with acute myeloid leukemia
Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of follicular helper T cells(Tfh)and follicular regulatory T cells(Tfr)in peripheral blood of patients with acute myeloid leukemia(AML).Methods Sixty newly diagnosed AML patients and forty healthy subjects were selected,the pro-portion of Tfh and Tfr cells was detected by flow cytometry,and the expression levels of serum cytokines IL-10,TGF-p1 and IL-21 were detected by ELISA.The expression levels of transcription factors BCL-6 and Blimp-1 in Tfh and Tfr cells were detected by WB.The proportion of cells and the expression of tran-scription factors and related cytokines were compared between the 2 groups.To analyze the association be-tween Tfr,Tfh/Tfr ratio,cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β1 levels and poor prognosis in AML patients.Res-ults Compared with healthy control group,the proportion of Tfr cells,serum IL-10 and TGF-β1 levels were increased in AML group,and Tfh/Tfr ratio and Blimp-1 level were decreased,with statistical signifi-cance(all P<0.05).The proportion of Tfh cells,BCL-6 and serum IL-21 levels were slightly increased,with no statistical significance(P>0.05).Compared with the other 2 groups,the proportion of Tfr cells,IL-10 and TGF-β1 in the poor prognosis group were significantly increased,and the ratio of Tfh/Tfr was significantly decreased(all P<0.05).Tfr cell proportion,IL-10 and TGF-β1 levels in the medium prog-nosis group were slightly higher than those in the good prognosis group(P<0.05),Tfh/Tfr ratio was significantly lower than that in the good prognosis group(P<0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that Tfr cell proportion was positively correlated with serum IL-10 and TGF-β1 levels(r=0.706,0.619,both P<0.000 1),and Tfh/Tfr ratio was negatively correlated with IL-10 and TGF-β1 levels(r=-0.454,-0.446,P<0.001).Conclusion Tfr cells and related cytokines are abnormally high expressed in AML patients,and there is an imbalance of Tfh/Tfr ratio,and this phenomenon is more obvious in AML patients with poor prognosis.
follicular helper T cellsfollicular regulatory T cellscytokinesacute myeloid leukemia