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. 2022 Jul 30;22(1):291.
doi: 10.1186/s12890-022-02088-7.

Distribution and clinical significance of circulating CD8+CD28- regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Xin Yu #  1   2 , Yao Lin #  2 , Hui Chen #  1 , Min-Juan Wu #  1 , Li-Na Huang  1 , Yi-Yan Song  1 , Bin-Bin Gu  2 , Zhi-Jian Ye  2 , Ping Xu  3 , Jian-Ping Zhang  4 , Jun-Chi Xu  5   6
Affiliations

Distribution and clinical significance of circulating CD8+CD28- regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Xin Yu et al. BMC Pulm Med. .

Abstract

Background: Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) in the peripheral blood of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) may be closely related to the progression of PTB. In this study, the distribution characteristics and clinical importance of CD8+CD28- Treg cells in patients with tuberculosis were systematically analyzed, and the role and importance of CD8+CD28- Treg cells in influencing the immune response and progression of tuberculosis were discussed, which will provide immunological indices and reference values for the clinical diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Methods: Flow cytometry, sputum smears and computed tomography imaging were used to analyze the distribution characteristics of CD8+CD28- Treg cells in the peripheral blood of patients with PTB and the correlation between CD8+CD28-Treg cells and clinical and immune indices.

Results: The percentages of CD4+CD25high and CD8+CD28- Treg cells in the peripheral blood of patients with PTB were significantly higher than those in the healthy control (HC) group. Further analysis showed that the percentage of CD4+CD25highTreg cells in the Stage II group was significantly higher than that in the HC group. The percentages of CD4+CD25high and CD8+CD28- Treg cells increased significantly in patients in the Stage II group. The proportion of CD8+CD28- Treg cells was directly proportional to the degree of positivity in sputum smears, while CD4+CD25highTreg cells did not exhibit this trend. The correlations between the percentage of CD4+CD25high and CD8+CD28- Treg cells and the percentage of lymphocyte subsets were examined. The percentage of CD8+CD28- Treg cells was negatively correlated with the percentage of CD4+T cells and positively correlated with the CD8+T cell percentage in the HC and PTB groups. The percentage of CD4 + CD25highTreg cells was positively correlated with the percentage of CD4+T cells only in the PTB group.

Conclusions: This study was the first to show that the proportion of CD8+CD28- Treg cells in the peripheral blood of patients with PTB was significantly increased, and the increase in CD8+CD28- Treg cells was related to the progression of PTB, which may affect the proportion of immune cell subsets by inhibiting the immune response, resulting in the progression of PTB.

Keywords: CD8+CD28− Treg; Immune response; Tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Gating strategy and frequencies of peripheral blood CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25highTreg cells in the HC group and PTB group. A The gating strategies and representative results showing the frequencies of peripheral blood CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25highTreg cells in the HC group and PTB group. B Statistical analysis of the frequencies of CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25highTreg cells in the HC and PTB groups
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation between the levels of peripheral blood CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25highTreg cells and the disease course of patients with TB. A Statistical analysis of the frequencies of CD8+CD28−Treg cells among the CD8+ population was compared among the HC, PTB-Stage I and PTB-Stage II groups. B Statistical analysis of the frequencies of CD4+CD25highTreg cells among the CD4+ population was compared among the HC, PTB-Stage I and PTB-Stage II groups. C Statistical analysis of the frequencies of CD8+CD28− Treg cells among the CD8+ population was compared among the subgroups of PTB patients with different bacillary loads in their sputum. D Statistical analysis of the frequencies of CD4+CD25highTreg cells among the CD4+ population was compared among the subgroups of PTB patients with different bacillary loads in their sputum. + : 3–9 strips/100 visual fields, +  + : 1–9 strips/10 visual fields, +  +  + : 1–9/field and +  +  +  + : ≥ 10 strips/field
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Correlation between the frequencies of peripheral blood CD8+CD28− and CD4+CD25highTreg cells and lymphocyte subsets in the PTB groups. A–D Correlation between the frequencies of peripheral blood CD8+CD28−Treg cells and lymphocyte subsets in the PTB groups. E–H Correlation between the frequencies of peripheral blood CD4+CD25highTreg cells and lymphocyte subsets in the PTB groups
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