Analysis of Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis
Peripheral lymphocyte surface antigen subsets were analyzed in 25 patients with multiple sclerosis. These patients were divided into two subgroups of patients in the stable phase and those in relapse. As compared with a normal control group and stable phase group, the relapse group showed decreased CD4+CD45RA+ cells (p< 0.0001 and p< 0.05, respectively) and increased CD4+CD45RO+ cells (p<0.005 and p< 0.01, respectively). CD3+IL-2R+ cells significantly increased during relapse as compared with the stable phase (p<0.02). CD3+γδT cells decreased in the relapse group as compared with the normal control group (p<0.05). No significant changes were observed in the CD4/CD8 ratio, unlike the findings in previous reports. It was confirmed that analysis of peripheral lymphocyte subsets provides sufficient indicators for the determination of the activity of multiple sclerosis. The decreases in CD4+CD45RA+ cells and CD3+γδT cells proved to be a particularly sensitive indicator for the diagnosis of patients who had had only one attack or had not yet been diagnosed, and the increases in CD4+CD45RO+ cells and CD3+IL-2R+ cells were determined to be a sensitive indicator for the prediction of relapse among patients diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis.
