Innate Immune System and Multiple Sclerosis. Granulocyte Numbers Are Reduced in Patients Affected by Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis during the Remission Phase

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the central nervous system. The cause of MS is still unknown, and the role of innate immunity is still poorly understood.

Objective: The goal of this study was to understand whether, compared to healthy controls, the elements of innate immunity are altered in the blood of MS patients in the remitting phase.

Methods: A total of 77 naïve MS patients and 50 healthy controls were included in this cohort study. Peripheral blood samples were collected and analyzed. All the calculations were performed with the statistical system R (r-project.org).

Results: The results showed that MS patients had significantly lower relative representations of granulocytes than healthy controls, while the relative representations of monocytes remained unchanged. CD64- and PD-L1-positive granulocytes exhibited a nonsignificant decreasing trend, while granulocytes with other membrane markers remained noticeably unchanged.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that studies of the causes of MS and its treatment should also be focused on the elements of the innate immune response.

Keywords: CD64; PD-L1; granulocytes; monocytes; multiple sclerosis; relapsing-remitting.

Figure 1

Gating strategy for granulocytes and monocytes Legend. Gating strategy: Obtained events were gated in an FSC intensity and SSC intensity dot plot to eliminate debris. Cells were gated on an FSC intensity and FSC peak dot plot to eliminate doublets. Granulocytes were gated on an SSC vs. CD15 dot plot. Monocytes were gated on an SSC vs. CD64 dot plot. The expression level of selected markers is evaluated as fluorescence intensity on the histograms. FSC: Forward scatter, SSC: Side scatter.