Imbalance of two main circulating dendritic cell subsets in patients with myasthenia gravis

Publication date: Available online 22 October 2018

Source: Clinical Immunology

Author(s): Pei Chen, Yingkai Li, Hao Huang, Yan Li, Zhenguang Chen, Xiaoxi Liu, Li Qiu, Changyi Ou, Zhidong Huang, Zhongqiang Lin, Hao Ran, Weibin Liu

Abstract

Although it is well documented that circulating dendritic cells (DCs) have specialized features in many kinds of physiological and pathological condition of human, there is still lack reports about the features of DCs in the peripheral blood of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. We aimed to investigate the quantitative and component features of DCs and their implication in MG. We collected peripheral blood from different kinds of MG patients and recorded their clinical characteristics. Using flow cytometry, we distinguished circulating DC subsets [plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and myeloid DCs (mDCs)] and enumerated their densities in peripheral blood. Absolute numbers of circulating pDCs were significantly decreased in naïve MG patients compared with healthy controls, resulting in a markedly lower ratio of pDCs/mDCs (percentage). Thus, there was an imbalance in the proportions of different circulating DC subsets. We did not find clustered pDCs in the hyperplastic thymus of MG patients. The clinical status of MG patients was improved after drug treatment, together with an increased ratio of pDCs/mDCs. In a longitudinal follow-up, we observed that circulating mDCs were significantly reduced after 1 month of therapy with a steroid and immunosuppressant, resulting in recovery of the pDC/mDC ratio. The ratio of circulating DC subsets might reflect the balance between the autoimmune response and immune tolerance of a patient, and ratio changes during treatment could be a promising marker to predict the efficacy of a specific drug used for MG patients.

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