Altered expression of the TCR signaling related genes CD3 and FcRI in patients with aplastic anemia

Abstract

Background: Aplastic anemia (AA) is characterized by pancytopenia and bone marrow hypoplasia, which results from immune-mediated hematopoiesis suppression. Understanding the pathophysiology of the immune system, particularly T cells immunity, has led to improved AA treatment over the past decades. However, primary and secondary failure after immunosuppressive therapy is frequent. Thus, knowledge of the immune mechanisms leading to AA is crucial to fundamentally understand the disease. Findings. To elucidate the T cell receptor (TCR) signal transduction features in AA, the expression levels of CD3, , and chain and FcRI genes, which are involved in TCR signal transduction, and the negative correlation of the expression levels between the CD3 and FcRI genes in T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were analyzed. Real-time RT-PCR using the SYBR Green method was used to detect the expression level of these genes in PBMCs from 18 patients with AA and 14 healthy individuals. The 2microglobulin gene (2M) was used as an endogenous reference. The expression levels of the CD3, CD3, CD3 and CD3 genes in patients with AA were significantly increased compared to a healthy control group, whereas the FcRI gene expression level was significantly decreased in patients with AA in comparison with the healthy control group. Moreover, the negative correlation of the expression levels between the CD3 and FcRI genes was lost. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of the CD3, CD3, CD3, CD3 and FcRI gene expression in patients with AA. The abnormally expressed TCR signaling related genes may relate to T cells dysfunction in AA. © 2012 Li et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.