Change of Th22 cells in peripheral blood of patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia and clinical implication

Abstract To investigate the change of Th22 cells in the peripheral blood of the patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and evaluate the significance of Th22 cells in ITP. The proportion of Th22 cells in the peripheral blood of ITP patients before therapy (group 1), ITP patients in complete response after therapy (ITP-CR, group 2) and healthy donors (group 3) was evaluated by flow cytometry. The cytokines IL-22, TGF-β, TNF-α and IL-6 of each group were measured by ELISA. The level of IL-22 mRNA of each group was examined by RT-PCR. The proportion of Th22 cells and the levels of IL-22, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-22 mRNA in group l and group 2 were significantly higher than those in group 3 (P