Abstract
Patients relapsing from multiple sclerosis (MS) are treated with high-dose, short-term intravenous injection of glucocorticoid (GC), although its mechanism of action remains only partly understood. We evaluated the ex vivo and in vitro effects of GC on regulatory T cell (T(reg)) function in 14 relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS) patients in acute phase and 20 healthy controls (HC). T(reg) function was enhanced significantly after 5 days of GC treatment. Furthermore, there was a trend towards increasing proportions of CD4(+)CD25(+)forkhead box P3(+) T cells and interleukin-10 secretion with GC treatment when compared with HC. In conclusion, GC treatment restores the impaired T(reg) function in patients with RR-MS in its acute phase.
MeSH terms
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Acute Disease
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Autoimmunity / drug effects
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Case-Control Studies
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Flow Cytometry / methods
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Forkhead Transcription Factors / analysis
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Glucocorticoids / therapeutic use*
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Humans
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Immunization
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Immunophenotyping
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Interleukin-10 / analysis
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Interleukin-10 / immunology
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Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit / immunology
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Lymphocyte Count
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Methylprednisolone / therapeutic use*
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Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / drug therapy*
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Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / immunology
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Regression Analysis
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T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / drug effects
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T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / immunology*
Substances
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FOXP3 protein, human
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Forkhead Transcription Factors
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Glucocorticoids
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Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit
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Interleukin-10
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Methylprednisolone