Caracterização de diferentes expressões fenotípicas de células TCD4 na asma atópica e não-atópica de uma população de escolares de Porto Alegre/RS

Abstract

Introduction: Asthma is a disease with predominant presence of CD4 Th2 cells that affects children. The disease main characteristics is inflammation and airway hyperreactivity. Asthma has two main phenotypes depending on the presence of atopy. It was not yet fully described in asthmatic children of school age the presence of different profiles of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells in peripheral blood, which may be related to the pathogenesis of the disease. Aims: To analyze the phenotypic of CD4 T cells in asthmatics children in Porto Alegre/RS. Methods: This was a croos-sectional study when it was recruited children between 9 to 15 years old, asthmatics and controls. The PBMCs were isolated using Ficoll and the cells were cultured with anti-CD3/CD28antibodies, Derp1 or left unstimulated. After 24hs the cells were stained with antibodies specifics for transcription factors in order to analyze Th1, Th2, Treg and Th17 cells by flow cytometry and the supernatant was collected for cytokine analysis by CBA assay. Plasma was used to perform analysis of specific IgE. Results: It was analyzed 104 patients, 12 controls and 92 asthmatics. Atopic asthmatic patients presented higher frequency of Th2 cells compared with non-atopic and atopic controls. When we analyzed cells expressing more than one transcription factor it was observed that atopic asthmatics patients have a higher frequency of CD4+GATA3+FOXP3+, CD4+RORγT+GATA3+ and CD4+GATA3+Tbet+ compared with non-atopic patients and controls atopic. Analyzing the asthma severity it was seen a higher frequency of CD4+RORγT+GATA3+ in patients with moderate asthma compared with patients with mild asthma. Stimulating the cells from atopic asthma patients with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 induced more Th1 profile while stimulating with DerP1 protein changed the profile of the cells mainly to Th17 and Treg cells. Conclusion: This is the first study in children that analyzes Th1, Th2, Treg and Th17 cells using the tag transcription factor by flow cytometry in asthmatic or atopic and non-atopic controls. We found a Th2 profile in atopic asthmatic children according to the literature. Interestingly non-atopic children showed no predominant profile. Children with moderate asthma have a profile that expresses both the transcription factor GATA3 and RORγT. Depending on the stimulus used it was induced different phenotypes in the cells of this group of patients with asthma.