Reference Values for a Panel of Cytokinergic and Regulatory Lymphocyte Subpopulations

Abstract

Lymphocyte subpopulations producing cytokines and exerting regulatory functions represent key immune elements. Given their reciprocal interdependency lymphocyte subpopulations are usually assayed as diagnostic panels, rather than single biomarkers for specialist clinical use. This retrospective analysis on lymphocyte subpopulations, analyzed over the last few years in an outpatient laboratory in Northeast Italy, contributes to the establishment of reference values for several regulatory lymphocytes currently lacking such reference ranges for the general population. Mean values and ranges in a sample of Caucasian patients (mean age 42±8,5 years), were provided for Th1, Th2, Th17, Th-reg, Tc-reg, Tc-CD57+ and B1 lymphocytes. The results are consistent with what is found in literature for the single subtypes and are: Th1 157.8±60.3/µl (7.3%±2.9); Th2 118.2±52.2/µl (5.4%±2.5); Th17 221.6±90.2/µl (10.5%±4.4); Th-reg 15.1±10.2/µl (0.7%±0.4); Tc-reg 5.8±4.7/µl (0.3%±0.2); Tc-CD57+ 103.7±114.1/µl (4.6%±4.7); B1 33.7±22.8/µl (1.5%±0.9); (Values are mean±SD). The results show that despite their variability, mean values are rather consistent in all age or sex groups and can be used as laboratory internal reference for this regulatory panel. Adding regulatory cells to lymphocyte subpopulations panels allows a more complete view of the state of the subject's immune network balance, thus improving the personalization and the “actionability” of diagnostic data in a systems medicine perspective.

Characteristics and reference ranges of CD4+T cell subpopulations among healthy adult Han Chinese in Shanxi Province, North China

“…To the best of our knowledge, only one previous study from Northeast Italy [17] reported the reference ranges of Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cells. Obvious differences in the reference values of CD4 + T cell subpopulations were observed between the present study and the published data from Northeast Italy [17], which could be associated with race and sample sizes. Of note, among the primarily identified CD4 + T cell subsets, Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cells were associated with different tagging strategies.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, there was only one previous study from Northeast Italy [17] that determined the Fig. 1 Age distribution among all healthy volunteers, males or females.…”

“…Region-specific reference ranges for adult peripheral blood T cells, B cells, and NK cells have also been determined in certain countries [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, other than one study from Italy in 2016 [17], no other study has investigated the characteristics and distributions of circulating CD4 + T cell subpopulations in a wide range of healthy subjects from the Han Chinese population. To fill this knowledge gap, we determined the percentages and absolute counts of peripheral blood CD4 + T cell subpopulations in an age-and sex-balanced population of healthy adults of Han Chinese ethnicity to establish monocentric reference values and also analyzed the characteristics of CD4 + T cell subsets based on sex and age.…”

Characteristics of and reference ranges for peripheral blood lymphocytes and CD4+ T cell subsets in healthy adults in Shanxi Province, North China

“…The frequencies and absolute numbers of B cells were slightly lower in Han Chinese individuals of the Shanxi region than in individuals from Hong Kong, 9 Germany 12 and Singapore. 13 Compared with individuals in Italy, 14 higher percentages and absolute numbers of Treg cells and lower percentages and absolute numbers of Th17 cells were observed in Han Chinese individuals of the Shanxi region.…”

“…Because reference intervals for lymphocytes and CD4+ T cell subsets may differ by race, we compared lymphocyte and CD4+ T cell subset reference ranges in diverse racial groups ( Table 4 9 – 13 and Table 5 14 ). Absolute numbers of CD4+ T cells in Han Chinese individuals of the Shanxi region were lower than those in individuals from Hong Kong, 9 Beijing, 10 Germany 12 and Singapore.…”