The Expansion of CD25highIL-10highFoxP3high B Regulatory Cells Is in Association with SLE Disease Activity

B regulatory cells (bregs) belong to a subgroup of activated b cells tasked with maintaining self-tolerance and preventing autoimmunity. while sharing similar regulatory mechanisms such as il-10 dependency,they also defer in exhibiting their suppressive effects by expressing fas-ligand,tgf-beta,and pdl-1. in this study we show,for the first time,the expansion of cd25highfoxp3high bregs in systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) patients compared to healthy individuals (18.5 ± 3.052% versus 11.0 ± 1.654%,p<0.001,resp.). this expansion was also shown to correlate with sle disease activity (r=0.75). in addition,cd25highfoxp3high bregs were also il-10high expressing and further expanded when stimulated with semaphorin 3a. in sum we show that cd25highfoxp3high are an additional subtype of bregs,involved in regulating sle disease activity. being il-10 expressing,we may assume that they are one of the sources of increased serum il-10 in sle patients. further studies are required in order to assess the relation between high serum il-10 and cd25highfoxp3high breg cells. © 2015 zahava vadasz et al.