Abstract
Purpose:
To evaluate frequency of T regulatory cells (Tregs) and homing receptor expression in patients with allergic conjunctivitis (AC).
Methods:
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from healthy donors (HD) and AC-patients and labeled with mAbs against CD4, CD25, FOXP3, CCR4, CCR5, CCR7, CCR9, CD103 and CD108 before and after antigen stimulation with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Der p). All cells were analyzed by flow cytometry and culture supernatants were recovered to analyze IL-10 and TGF-β.
Results:
AC-patients showed 55-times more CD4+ CD25+ cells than HD. Most of CD4+ CD25+ cells were FOXP3-, also these cells were CCR4+ and CCR9+ cells. After culture, no changes were detected in frequency of CD4+ CD25+ FOXP3+, nor FOXP3- T cells. Interestingly, we observed increased expression of CD103 and CD108 on T cells and IL-10 only in AC-patients.
Conclusions:
Circulating Tregs were decreased in allergic conjunctivitis patients, and these cells were expressing homing receptors associated to mucosa migration; after specific stimuli, these cells were able to express CD103 and CD108 on its surface; taken together these results suggest that in allergic conjunctivitis patients these cells could be migrating to conjunctival mucosa associated-lymphoid tissue remaining a phenotype related to Tr1 cells.
Keywords: 555 immunomodulation/immunoregulation •
480 cornea: basic science