Low Expression of IL-10 in Circulating Bregs and Inverted IL-10/TNF-α Ratio in Tears of Patients with Perennial Allergic Conjunctivitis: A Preliminary Study

oleh: Alberto Salazar, Israel Casanova-Méndez, Michele Pacheco-Quito, Henry Velázquez-Soto, Julio Ayala-Balboa, Enrique O. Graue-Hernández, Jeanet Serafín-López, María C. Jiménez-Martínez

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-02-01

Deskripsi

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is one of the most common ophthalmological disorders seen in clinical practice. Growing evidence from recent years suggests that a subset of IL-10-expressing B cells is involved in inflammatory allergic diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential involvement of blood Bregs cells in perennial allergic conjunctivitis (PAC), and interleukins (IL)-1&#946;, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-12, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&#945;, were measured in tear samples and compared with healthy controls (HC) using flow cytometry. Non-significant differences in CD19<sup>+</sup>IL-10<sup>+</sup> cell frequency between PAC patients and healthy controls (HC) were observed. Nevertheless, when we analyzed the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of IL-10 on CD19<sup>+</sup>CD38<sup>Lo/Med/Hi</sup>-gated cells, we observed a significant decrease in MFI in all Bregs subsets in PAC patients. Additionally, tear cytokines showed 2.8 times lower levels of IL-10 than TNF-&#945; in PAC patients when compared to HC. Our findings demonstrate an immunological dysregulation in patients with allergic conjunctivitis, characterized by the low expression of IL-10 in circulating CD19<sup>+</sup>CD38<sup>+</sup> Bregs subsets and an inverted tear IL-10/TNF-&#945; ratio, promoting a local pro-inflammatory microenvironment. These findings highlight the novel pathologic changes involved in ocular allergic diseases. Understanding systemic and local mechanisms will aid the design of immunomodulating therapeutics at different levels.