Phenotypic correlations between monocytes and CD4+ T cells in allergic patients

Abstract

Despite widely acknowledged contributions of innate and adaptive immune systems to the pathogenesis of allergic diseases, mutual interactions occurring in vivo between components of those two systems have not been studied in sufficient detail. Here, we wished to investigate whether phenotypic features of monocytes and CD4+ T cells in allergic patients are reciprocally related. Therefore, we recruited 50 untreated house dust mite-sensitive allergic rhinitis patients and 29 non-atopic healthy individuals and performed comprehensive simultaneous flow cytometric analysis of mutual correlations between levels of CD14, CD16, CD163, CD206, CD124 (IL-4R), CD210 (IL-10R) and CD25, CD124, CD127 (IL-7R), CD210, ICOS expression on monocytes and CD4+ T cells, respectively. We found that CD163 monocyte expression in allergic but not healthy subjects is positively correlated with monocyte IL-10R, and, to a lesser extent, CD206, but not IL-4R expression. Levels of CD163 expression were not related to frequencies of CD14++CD16-, CD14++CD16+, and CD14+CD16++ monocyte subsets. In contrast to healthy controls, intensities of monocyte IL-10R in allergic individuals were significantly correlated with monocyte CD206 and IL-4R expression. In addition, levels of monocyte IL-4R and IL-10R monocyte expression were positively correlated to expression of IL-4R and IL-10R on CD4+ T cells in both groups of studied subjects. Interestingly, we demonstrated a significant positive correlation between levels of monocyte CD206 expression and levels of IL-10R and IL-4R expression on CD4+ T cells in allergic but not healthy individuals. In summary, we conclude that allergic rhinitis is associated with a number of phenotypic alterations of circulating monocytes and CD4+ T cells.