T-Lymphocyte Subpopulations in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Crohn's Disease

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Samples of peripheral blood from 26 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 26 healthy age- and sex-matched controls were tested simultaneously for B and T lymphocytes and T-lymphocyte subpopulations with receptors for IgM (TM) and IgG (TG). Patients with CD had reduced proportions of T lymphocytes, and this reduction showed a significant correlation to the CD activity index (r = −0.65, p < 0.01). There was a slight reduction of TM only (p < 0.05) in patients with highly active disease but not in the total population of patients studied. Proportions of B and TG cells were similar in patients and controls. Patients with no clinical or radiological but histological signs of active disease had T lymphocytes and subpopulations like patients with inactive disease. This suggests that the reduction of T cells and T-cell subpopulations in CD are secondary effects. With regard to T-lymphocyte subpopulations, our results are in contrast to a recently published report and do not suggest that analysis of T cells according to the expression of Fc receptors helps in the understanding of functional changes in the T-cell system in patients with CD.