Reduced frequency of cTfreg cells in MS patients.
Next, we evaluated the frequency of cTfreg cells, which was determined
by selecting FoxP3+CD25+ cells from
cTfh cells (Fig. 1). The frequency of cTfreg cells was significantly
reduced in MS patients compared to HC (1.38±0.14% vs. 3.0±0.35%,
p<0.0001) (Fig. 5a(right panel) ,b),
whereas the percentage of non-follicular cTfreg cells did not differ
between HC and MS (Fig. 5c and S4a). However, the frequency of cTreg
(CD4+FoxP3+CD25+)
cells among CD4+ T cells was significantly lower in MS
patients compared to HC (1.87±0.29% vs. 3.11±0.35%, p=0.003) (Fig.
S4b(left panel) ,c). We also examined the
expression of CXCR5+PD-1+ markers in
cTreg cells. Interestingly, the percentage of
CXCR5+PD-1+ cells among cTreg cells
was also significantly reduced in MS patients compared to that observed
in HC (13.49±1.48% vs. 25.54±1.8%, p<0.0001) (Fig.
S4b(right panel) , d). Taken together, these data
suggest that cTfreg cells were down regulated in MS patients.