Detection of Th17/Treg Cell-Associated Cytokines in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Graft-Versus-Host Disease and Its Clinical Significance

To investigate the peripheral levels and clinical significance of Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines in patients with acute graft versus host disease(aGVHD) or chronic GVHD(cGVHD),blood samples were collected from 39 hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation patients and 20 healthy donors.The patients included 10 patients with aGVHD,13 patients with cGVHD and 16 patients without evidence of GVHD.Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines such as IFNγ,IL-4,IL-6,IL-10,TGF-β1,IL-17 and IL-23 were detected by ELISA.The results showed that the plasma levels of IFN-γ,IL-4,IL-6,IL-17 and IL-23 significantly increased in patients with aGVHD or cGVHD,compared with the patients without clinical signs of GVHD and the healthy donors(p0.05),while IL-10 and TGF-β1 were obviously lower than that of them(p0.05).After aGVHD and cGVHD patients were treated effectively,the plasma levels of IL-6,IL-17 and IL-23 were significantly decreased,and IL-10,TGF-β1 were significantly increased,while the levels of IFN-γ and IL-4 did not markedly change.The TGF-β1 level were negatively correlated with IL-6(r=-0.36,p0.05),IL-17(r=-0.51,p0.05) and IL-23(r=-0.44,p0.05) respectively,while there were positive correlations between IL-6 and IL-17(r=0.62,p0.05),IL-6 and IL-23(r=0.71,p0.05),IL-17 and IL-23(r=0.93,p0.05).It is concluded that Th17/Treg cell-associated cytokines may play an important role in the development of a/cGVHD,which helps to find novel targets for developing new strategies of GVHD treatment.