Immunomonitoring Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Abstract

Advances in the understanding of pathogenic mechanisms of diseases have led to the defining of new biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy response. In this context, flow cytometry has been positioned as one of the most useful technologies for monitoring immune-mediated diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), allowing a detailed analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood. The autoimmune inflammatory response in MS results in changes in lymphocyte subpopulations that might be useful as surrogate markers for the evaluation of disease activity, progression, and monitoring of therapy response. This chapter discusses the role of T-lymphocyte and B-lymphocyte subpopulations in MS pathogenesis, the effect of MS treatments on these subsets, and their potential usefulness as biomarkers of treatment response.