CD35 expression on peripheral blood granulocytes of patients with atopic dermatitis

We examined CD35 expression on granulocytes from 45 patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) (male, 21, female, 24) and 25 age and sex-matched controls (male, 15; female, 10). There was no significant difference in the peripheral blood neutrophil count between AD patients and controls, whereas the eosinophil count in AD patients was significantly higher than that of controls. The percentages of CD35 positive eosinophils and neutrophils were determined by using two-color flow cytometric analysis. As regards eosinophils, we found CD35 expression from AD patients to be lower than that of controls (P < 0.05), but there was no correlation between the CD35 expression and disease severity. In contrast, the CD35 expression on neutrophils from AD patients was much lower than that of controls (P < 0.005). Furthermore, CD35 expression on neutrophils of severe AD group was significantly higher than that of the mild AD group (P < 0.05). This suggests that the CD35 expression of neutrophils but not eosinophils reflects disease severity in AD patients and the CD35 expression on neutrophils in AD patients may associate with susceptibility to bacterial infection.