Abstract
Objectives
Graves’ disease (GD) is an autoimmune disease involving intimate response of both T cells and B cells. Immunophenotyping of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in GD children with different clinical characteristics can provide further information of the pathogenesis of GD.
Methods
We studied the lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of 141 children with GD. We repeatedly divided the patients into two groups in accordance with different clinical characteristics (abnormal or normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, the presence or absence of Graves’ orbitopathy (GO), and the presence or absence of hematuria. Then we compared the lymphocyte subsets measurements between two paired groups.
Results
We found that serum ALT levels correlated positively with CD3+CD8+ T cell percentages in children with GD. Moreover, we detected higher percentages of CD3−CD19+ cells and higher ratio of CD4/CD8 in patients with GO. However, no correlation was found between GO status and lymphocyte subsets after excluding confounding effect of TRAb. No difference of lymphocyte subset percentages was found between groups with or without hematuria.
Conclusions
Serum ALT levels correlate positively with cytotoxic T cell percentages in the peripheral blood of children with GD. The cytotoxic T cell may play a role in the pathogenesis of hepatic dysfunction in children with GD.
Funding source: The Department of Pediatrics Clinical Center of Suzhou
Award Identifier / Grant number: Szzx201504
Funding source: Suzhou Personnel Planning Project
Award Identifier / Grant number: GSWS2019051
Funding source: National Natural Science Foundation of China
Award Identifier / Grant number: 81700793
Research funding: This study was supported by a National Natural Science Foundation of China (project code 81700793) and a Suzhou Personnel Planning Project (project code GSWS2019051) awarded to Dr. Ting Chen. This study is also partially supported by Suzhou children’s medical center of internal medicine.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: Informed consent was obtained from the patients and family members included in this study, following procedures specified by the Ethics Committee of Children’s Hospital of Soochow University and the guidelines of World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki 2000.
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Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/jpem-2020-0158).
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