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Updated: Aug 12, 2026
Isolation of CD4+ T-cells and Analysis of Circulating T-follicular Helper (cTfh) Cell Subsets from Peripheral Blood Using 6-color Flow Cytometry
Published on: January 7, 2019
Abnormalities in CD4+ T lymphocyte subsets in patients with common variable immunodeficiency
Y Lebranchu1, G Thibault, D Degenne
1Department of Immunology, Faculté de Médecine, Tours, France.
Insights
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVI) is linked to fewer CD4+ CD45RA+ T cells, impacting T cell function and antibody production. This T cell subset deficiency may explain the impaired immunoglobulin levels in CVI patients.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVI) is characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia.
- The role of T cell defects in CVI pathogenesis remains incompletely understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the T cell phenotype and function in CVI patients.
- To determine if T cell abnormalities correlate with immunoglobulin deficiency.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 9 CVI patients and 12 healthy controls.
- Flow cytometry was used to assess T cell subsets (CD3+, CD8+, CD4+, CD4+CD45RA+, CD4+CD29+).
- PBMC proliferative responses to mitogens (PHA, Con A) were measured.
Main Results:
- CVI patients showed significantly decreased numbers of CD4+ T cells compared to controls.
- This reduction was primarily due to a deficiency in the naive CD4+CD45RA+ T cell subset.
- A positive correlation was observed between CD4+CD45RA+ T cell levels and PBMC proliferative responses.
Conclusions:
- A significant decrease in CD4+CD45RA+ T cells is a key feature in CVI.
- This T cell subset deficiency may contribute to impaired T cell function and antibody production in CVI.
Abstract:
In order to investigate whether deficient immunoglobulin production in common variable immunodeficiency (CVI) patients was related to defective T cells functions, phenotype and proliferative responses to mitogen of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were investigated in 9 patients with CVI. The results were compared to those of 12 age- and sex-matched normal controls. The numbers of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells in the patients were not different from those in the control group, but the numbers of CD4 T cells were decreased (511 +/- 237 vs 844 +/- 247/mm3; P less than 0.01). The decrease in CD4 T cells was due to a dramatic deficiency in the CD4+ CD45RA+ subset, observed as an absolute value of blood lymphocytes (126 +/- 91 vs 384 +/- 142; P less than 0.001) and as a percentage (9.0 +/- 7.1 vs 18.8 +/- 5.0; P less than 0.01). In contrast, the CD4+ CD29+ T cell subset was not different in CVI from those in the control group. Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between the number of percentages of CD4+ CD45RA+ blood T cells and the proliferative response of PBMC to PHA (respectively, P less than or equal to 0.02 and P = 0.05) and to Con A (P less than or equal to 0.02). The decrease of CD4+ CD45RA+ T cells could reflect an abnormality in the physiological status of T cells and could be of critical importance in the antibody deficiency.
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