Raised circulatory T regulatory cells in paediatric tuberculosis - An environment for bacterial persistence?

Ranjith Kumar; Richa Gupta; Pooja Dewan; Bineeta Kashyap; Mrinalini Kotru

doi:10.1016/j.ijtb.2023.03.004

Raised circulatory T regulatory cells in paediatric tuberculosis - An environment for bacterial persistence?

Indian J Tuberc. 2024 Jan;71(1):12-18. doi: 10.1016/j.ijtb.2023.03.004. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Ranjith Kumar¹, Richa Gupta², Pooja Dewan³, Bineeta Kashyap⁴, Mrinalini Kotru¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Delhi, India.
² Department of Pathology, University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Delhi, India. Electronic address: richagupta0209@gmail.com.
³ Department of Paediatrics, University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Delhi, India.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, University College of Medical Sciences and GTB Hospital, Delhi, India.

PMID: 38296384
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijtb.2023.03.004

Abstract

Objectives: T-regulatory cells (Tregs) restrain the Th1-mediated immune response and thus may help in persistence and dissemination of childhood Tuberculosis. This study compared the percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood of paediatric TB patients (severe and non severe) with healthy individuals by flow cytometry.

Methods: Study enrolled 40 subjects, less than 12 years along with 20 age matched healthy controls. Cases were further classified as severe TB and non severe TB. Haematological work-up and flow-cytometry for Tregs was done. Tregs were quantified as CD4CD25 high and CD4FoxP3 cells and compared in different groups using the Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: In cases, CD4CD25 high Tregs (%) ranged from 0.55 to 12.8 with a Mean ± SD of 3.61 ± 2.98 and CD4FoxP3 Tregs (%) ranged from 0.02 to 13.44 with a Mean ± SD of 3.56 ± 2.76. In controls, CD4CD25 high Tregs (%) ranged from 0.3 to 6.5 with a Mean ± SD of 1.29 ± 1.4 and CD4FoxP3 Tregs (%) ranged from 0.33 to 2.59 with a Mean ± SD of 1.57 ± 0.58. Thus the percentage of both CD4CD25 high and CD4FoxP3 Tregs were significantly higher in cases as compared to controls (p value, 0.001 and 0.001 respectively), however the difference was not significant between severe versus non-severe TB (p value, 0.827 and 0.880 respectively).

Conclusion: Children with TB (both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary) demonstrate increased number of T regulatory cells as compared to healthy controls. However, the number of Tregs are not significantly different between cases with severe versus non severe TB.

Keywords: Children; Flow cytometry; T regulatory cells; Tuberculosis.

MeSH terms

Child
Humans
T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory*
Tuberculosis* / microbiology