The clinical significance of the imbalance of Th17 and Treg cells and their related cytokines in peripheral blood of Parkinson’s disease patients

This study aims to detect the proportion of Th17 and Treg cells and the levels of their related cytokines in peripheral blood of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients. Flow cytometry was employed to detect peripheral (CD3+CD8CD17+) Th17 and (CD3+CD4+CD25+Foxp3+) Treg cells. ELISA was used to detect the cytokine levels in serum. Realtime PCR was used to detect the expression of nuclear transcription factors RORγt and Foxp3. Th17 cell proportion was increased and the proportion of Treg cells was significantly decreased in peripheral blood of PD patients’ (P<0.05). The serum level of IL-10 and TGF-β in PD patients was remarkably reduced. In contrast, serum level of IL-6 and IL-17 was increased in PD patients. In addition, PD patients had significantly lower level of Foxp3 mRNA and slightly higher RORγt mRNA in mononuclear cells of peripheral blood (P<0.05). In conclusion, in the peripheral blood of PD patients, the proportions of Th17 cells and the related cytokines markedly increased, but the proportion of Treg cells decreased. Therefore, the immunological imbalance of Th17, Treg cells and related cytokines might play a role in the development of PD.