study of t-cell subsets, b and nk cells in iranian patients with behcet's disease by monoclonal antibodies

behcet disease (bd) is a systemic inflammatory disease of the unknown etiology. there is however, some evidence to suggest that immunological abnormalities are important in its pathogenesis, furthermore several t-cell abnormalities which may be quite relevant to autoimmune origin of the disease have been described. we report here our study of t-cell subsets, b and nk cells in 68 patients with bd in comparison to 30 normal controls, by monoclonal antibodies against cd3 (pan t-cell), cd4 (helper) cd8 (suppressor/cytotoxic), cd22 (b-cell) and cd16 (nk-cell) markers. the results show the increase (p=0.008) of t (cd3), t (cd4) (p<0.000001) and decrease of t (cd8) (p<0.000001) and reduction in ratio of cd4/cd8 cells (p<0.000001), but any alteration in b and nk cells number were not seen. in patients with bd 69.8% negative ppd test and above results suggests that the cellular immunity in these patients is anergic, which may be an important etiological factor.