Abstract
Purpose :
To examine the profile of cell-mediated immunity in patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease before and after corticosteroid treatment.
Methods :
The study group were composed of 3 patients with treatment-naïve VKH disease (1 male, 2 females, mean age 65.0 ± 10.5 years), who were treated with steroid pulse therapy followed by oral high-dose corticosteroid administration. The control group consisted of 7 healthy subjects (4 males, 3 females, average age 31.0 ± 7.21 years old). Immune cell populations and cellular phenotypes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in early-onset and remission (about half a year later) were measured by Maxpar Direct Immune Profiling Assay® as a mass cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) technology. The particular expression patterns of VKH disease-related factors were evaluated by hierarchical cluster analysis.
Results :
In the early-onset of patients with VKH disease, the cell populations of CD4+ T cells, Th2 cells, B cells, Th17 cells, and basophils predominated in PBMCs. On the other hand, monocytes and neutrophils became dominant in the remission. In controls, Th1 cells, CD8+ T cells, NK cells, MAIT/NKT cells, regulatory T cells, dendritic cells, and eosinophils were dominant in PBMC. In hierarchical cluster analysis, the expression intensities of these cells in the controls were different from those in the patients with VKH disease in both the early-onset and remission.
Conclusions :
The onset of VKH disease may be involved in the adaptive immune responses in which regulatory T cells are suppressed. the steroid therapy could change the immune environment in which adaptive immune responses are dominant to that where innate immune responses predominate. It could be suggested that the systemic immune environment in patients VKH disease after the corticosteroid therapy is different from that in healthy subjects.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.