Increased frequencies of Th17 in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A one year follow-up

Objective: in this study, we aimed to investigate changes of peripheral th17 and treg cells frequencies in the newly-diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (cll) patients for 12 months. methods: in this research, 50 cll patients were enrolled. circulating th1, th17 cells and cd4+cd25+foxp3+treg cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. plasma levels of related cytokines were detected by enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (elisa). the study was carried out from january 2012 to october 2013 at department of laboratory medicine, west china hospital, sichuan university, chengdu, p.r. china. results: compared with healthy controls, th17 cells related cytokines were significantly increased in cll patients, while treg cells related cytokines were significantly lowered. in the follow-up, we found that the frequency of treg cells was irregular, while the frequency of th17 cells was gradually decreased. conclusion: our study suggested that th17 cells may play important role in the immune regulation of cll, and may become a new target in cll therapy.