Effects of Oral Glucocorticoid Therapy on CD4+CD25+CD127- and CD4+CD25high T Cell Levels in Asthmatic Patients

Abstract

Our purpose was to evaluate the effects of short-term oral glucocorticoid (GC) treatment on frequencies of T cells with putative regulatory phenotype (namely, CD4+CD25+CD127- and CD4+CD25high) in patients with asthma exacerbations. In addition, we sought to determine frequencies of above T cell subsets in adult asthmatic patients in relation to disease severity and different treatment regimens. The analysis was performed in 62 patients with different stages of asthma and ten healthy controls. Polychromatic flow cytometry was applied to delineate T cells with CD4+CD25+CD127- and CD4+CD25high phenotype. Exhaled nitric oxide analysis was used to assess allergic airway inflammation. Levels of neither CD4+CD25+CD127- nor CD4+CD25high T cells were significantly altered after 7-day oral GC treatment. Importantly, there were no detectable differences in frequencies of those cells among studied groups of asthmatics with different severity of disease and healthy controls. Moreover, levels of CD4+CD25+CD127- and CD4+CD25high T cells in asthmatic patients were not correlated to exhaled nitric oxide concentrations. Our data indicate that neither effects of average doses of oral GC treatment nor disease severity are related to changes in frequencies of CD4+CD25+CD127- and CD4+CD25high T cells in adult asthmatic patients.

Significance of the frequency of CD4+CD25+CD127− T‐cells in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus

“…Pathological sites in TBP and non‐diabetic TB patients contained large numbers of activated T‐cells and small numbers of Treg, so that the function of Teff was not negatively affected by Treg. This study also demonstrated that the CD4+CD25+ phenotype does not provide an indication of the actual frequency of immunosuppressive Treg 25 . Compared with the control subjects in this study, there was a high frequency of CD4+CD25+CD127− T‐cells in the peripheral blood of patients with active TB, indicating that overall immune function was suppressed in TB patients.…”

Regulatory T Cell Responses to High-Dose Methylprednisolone in Active Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

“…It provides symptomatic relief and the regression of severe forms of disease and may also enable a reduction in the dose of maintenance glucocorticoids [ 18 , 19 ]. The high concentrations of glucocorticoids achieved by IV pulse appears to have a more immediate and profound effect on Treg cells compared to conventional oral treatment [ 48 ]. However, despite the clinical efficacy of pulse for the initial management of active SLE, this benefit is not maintained for prolonged periods [ 17 , 49 ].…”

Dissecting the Regulatory Microenvironment of a Large Animal Model of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Evidence of a Negative Prognostic Impact of FOXP3+ T Cells in Canine B Cell Lymphoma

“…However, neither the cellular phenotype nor the prognosis of the pre-treated dogs was significantly different from that of the treatment-naïve patients, presumably because such drugs were administered on a limited number of occasions prior to sampling and would thus have had only minimal opportunity to impact the immune system. Recent studies of human patients receiving short-term glucocorticoid therapy have similarly shown no change in the frequency of peripheral Tregs [73], [74]. In view of the lack of impact of pre-treatment on these variables, all dogs of the respective B and T cell groups were considered together in our final analysis.…”