[Clinical Significance of Tfh/Tfr Cell Imbalance in Patients with B-Cell Lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of follicular helper T cell (Tfh)/ follicular regulatory T cell (Tfr) imbalance in B-cell lymphoma (BCL). METHODS: Sixteen BCL patients who were admitted to the Department of Hematology of The First People's Hospital of Yichang and 20 healthy people from December 2019 to November 2020 were enrolled and respectively divided into observation group and control group. The levels of Tfh and Tfr in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry. The changes of Tfh, Tfr, and Tfh/Tfr ratio were compared and the relationship between Tfh/Tfr ratio and efficacy, prognosis was analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, Tfh and Tfh/Tfr ratio in peripheral blood of the BCL patients increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), while levels of Tfr was decreased (P<0.01). After chemotherapy, Tfh and Tfh/Tfr ratio in peripheral blood of the BCL patients decreased significantly than before chemotherapy (P<0.01), but Tfr was no significant difference. Multivariate analysis showed that Tfh and Tfh/Tfr ratio were positively correlated with international prognostic index (IPI) score and Ann Arbor stage (r=0.626, 0.564, 0.573, 0.608, respectively), while Tfr negatively (r=－0.504, －0.542, respectively). According to the average value of Tfh/Tfr ratio at initial diagnosis, BCL patients were divided into Tfh/Tfr high ratio group and low ratio group. It was found that the complete remission (CR) rate, overall response rate (ORR), and survival time in the high ratio group were significantly lower than the low ratio group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: There is an imbalance of Tfh/Tfr ratio in peripheral blood of the BCL patients, and those with a high Tfh/Tfr ratio have lower CR, ORR and shorter survival time.

The predictive value of regulatory T cells on glucocorticoid sensitivity in patients with immune thrombocytopenia: a multicentre, prospective clinical study.

Glucocorticoids (GC) are used as the first-line treatment of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), but 10-20% of patients are insensitive to them. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) can maintain immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases. The present research pooled 55 patients with newly diagnosed ITP and 44 healthy volunteers from seven hospitals. All patients received GC treatment and were divided into GC-sensitive and GC-insensitive groups according to the curative effect after 2 weeks of treatment. The levels of lymphocyte subgroups and Tregs were recorded. As the results indicated, the levels of CD8+ CD25str+ Tregs in the GC-sensitive group were significantly higher than that of the GC-insensitive group (P = 0·005). The optimal critical value of CD8+ CD25str+ Tregs to distinguish GC sensitivity was 0·09%. With GC therapy the level of CD45RO+ /CD8+ CD25str+ Tregs (activated type) decreased after treatment (P = 0·02) and the level of CD45RO- /CD8+ CD25str+ Tregs (initial type) increased slightly (P = 0·11). There were no obvious changes in the level of CD4+ Tregs. These findings support that the level of CD8+ CD25str+ Tregs and its subgroups have a predictive value in judging the sensitivity to GC among patients with ITP. Trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn; ChiCTR-OON-17014165.

Lymphoproliferative disorders of natural killer cells: report of two cases and review of literature.

Lymphoproliferative disorders of natural killer cells (LPD-NK) are rare lymphoproliferative diseases involving NK cells. Here, we present two cases of LPD-NK. The first case is a 63-year-old man who presented with high fever, cytopenia, and a history of myelodsyplastic syndrome. He was finally diagnosed with aggressive NK cell leukemia and died due to progression of the disease within 15 days of diagnosis. The second case is a 70-year-old man with granulocytopenia who did not have clinical manifestations; he was diagnosed with chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of NK cells and a watch and wait approach was adopted until six-month follow up. This article describes the clinical features, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatments, and prognosis of LPD-NK through a literature review of case reports.

Rearrangement of PDGFRß gene in a patient with Ph-negative chronic myeloid leukemia t(5;12)(q33;p13) in imatinib mesylate treatment-free remission: a case report.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematologic malignancy, in which more than 95% of CML patients are discovered with the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) or BCR-ABL rearrangement. Those patients mainly suffer from CML, associating with lack of tyrosine kinase activity and BCR-ABL fusion gene. Here, we reported a patient with Ph-negative CML t(5;12)(q33;p13), accompanying with a rare genetic fusion between the TEL and PDGFRß genes. We identified a novel TEL-PDGFRß rearrangement, joining TEL (exon 12) to PDGFRß (exon 5), resulting in overexpression of PDGFRß. A promising result was achieved, in which TEL-PDGFRß fusion gene could not be effectively detected during imatinib treatment, demonstrating complete molecular biologic remission. Thus, multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitors are associated with Ph-negative CML t(5;12)(q33;p13) with TEL-PDGFRß rearrangement.