Decrease of perforin positive CD3⁺γδ-T cells in patients with obstructive sleep disordered breathing

Sleep related breathing disorders (SRBD) cause sleep fragmentation, intermittent hypoxia or a combination of both leading to homeostasis perturbations, including in the immune system. We investigated whether SRBD patients with or without intermittent hypoxia show substantial differences in perforin and granzyme-B positive peripheral blood lymphocytes.

A total of 87 subjects were included and distributed as follows: 24 controls (C), 19 patients with respiratory effort related arousals due to increased upper airway resistance (UAR) without hypoxic events, 24 obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (oOSA), and 20 without obesity (noOSA). After polysomnographic recording, we analyzed in fasting blood samples routine hematologic and biochemical parameters and the percentage of lymphocytes containing the proteins perforin and granzyme-B (GrB). Kruskal-Wallis tests and a posteriori multiple comparisons were applied for statistical analysis of results.

Perforin-positive γδ-cells revealed significant differences between groups (p = 0.017), especially between the Control group and the oOSA (p-value = 0.04); the remaining SRBD groups also showed differences from the control (C vs UAR: p = 0.08; C vs noOSA = 0.09), but they did not raise to statistical significance. There were no differences among the SRBD groups. Granzyme-B cells were decreased in SRBD patients, but the differences were not statistically significant. No additional statistical significant result was found in the other investigated lymphocyte subsets.

Obstructive sleep-disordered breathing is associated with a decrease in perforin-positive CD3⁺γδ-T cells. Although this finding was detected in lean patients without intermittent hypoxia, the reduction was only statistically significant in obese patients with severe OSA. Because CD3⁺γδ-T cells play an important role in the control of tumor cells, our findings are directly relevant for the study of the association of OSA and cancer.