Basophils As a Potential Marker of Lupus Nephritis By Flow Cytometry

Abstract

Objective: To establish a convenient and simple flow cytometry immunophenotyping panel to explore immune cellular alterations and potential cellular biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional, case–control study including 60 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. A 14-color immunophenotyping panel was applied to detect proportions of circulating immune mononuclear cells, and comparisons between patients and healthy controls, and subgroups of patients, were performed. Correlations between cellular proportions and other parameters were investigated. Results: After multivariate analysis, significantly decreased proportions of CD4⁻CD8⁻ T cells, natural killer cells and innate lymphoid cells were observed in patients compared with healthy controls. The proportions of basophils were decreased significantly in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) compared with those in patients without LN. Conclusion: In the present study, we found that basophil proportions may be a biomarker of LN.

Lay abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic, multisystem, autoimmune disorder that involves various abnormalities of immune cells and thus presents in a striking variety of ways. This study aimed to establish a biomarker panel that would enable the exploration of changes in immune cells and the relationships between immune cell subsets and clinical manifestations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Our results showed that basophil cell proportions may be a biomarker of use in lupus nephritis.

Keywords:

• basophils
• CD4⁻CD8⁻ T cells
• immunophenotype
• innate lymphoid cells
• lupus nephritis
• systemic lupus erythematosus

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/epi-2016-0184

Author contributions

X Mo and Y Jiang designed the study. Y Jiang, J Chen and Y Liu acquired data. Y Jiang, H Xu and Y Zhao performed analyses and discussed the results. Y Jiang and X Mo wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (to X Mo 2015CB942800) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (to X Mo 81361120381 and to CF 81402446). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

This work was approved by the Human Ethics Review Committee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki was obtained from all participants.