Serum soluble CD4 and CD8 levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Several immunological abnormalities have been described in systemic lupus erythematos (SLE). The objectives of this study are to investigate the serum levels of soluble CD4 (sCD4) and soluble CD8 (sCD8) which an reflect in vivo T cell activation status and to assess whether sCD4 and sCD8 measurement can help in further characterization of the disease. Forty patients with SLE and 20 apparently healhy controls were included in the study. All patients (35 females, 5 males) fulfilled the 1982 ARA criteria for the classification of SLE. The healthy controls consisted of 12 females and 8 males. Among SLE patients 20 had active and 209 had inactive disease. An ELISA (T Cell Diagnostics, Cambridge, MA) was used to measure the serum sCD4 and sCD8. Although there was no statistically significant difference between mean sCD8 levels of patients with SLE and controls (p>0.05), serum mean sCD4 level in patients with active SLE was significantly increased as compared to that in the controls and in patients with inactive SLE (p