Monocytes play an important role in immune and inflammatory diseases and monocyte subsets are predictors of disease in certain conditions. Expression of the chemokine receptors, CCR2 and CX3CR1 on monocyte subsets relates to their function and can be used in their characterization. Our objective was to determine whether CD14, CD16, CCR2 and CX3CR1 on monocyte subsets are potential indicators of asthma severity. Blood samples were collected from Saudi Arabian patients with asthma and normal healthy individuals. Six-color flow-cytometry phenotypic analysis was used to identify human blood monocyte subsets, based on their expression of CD14 and CD16 following CD45 gating. Expression of CCR2 and CX3CR1 was analysed on classical (CD14++CD16−), intermediate (CD14++CD16+) and non-classical (CD14+CD16++) subsets and correlated with disease severity. We demonstrated a significant increase in percentage of total CD45-positive monocytes in the blood of patients with severe asthma, but the proportion of the individual monocyte subsets was not significantly changed when patients with mild, moderate and severe asthma were compared with healthy individuals. CD16 expression (mean fluorescence intensity, MFI) was decreased on intermediate and non-classical subsets in patients with severe asthma compared to healthy controls. CX3CR1 expression was also lower, with a lower percentage of cells expressing CX3CR1 in the non-classical CD14+CD16++ subset in all patients with asthma and this was inversely related to the percentage of cells expressing CCR2. CCR2 expression on monocytes indicated a tendency toward more phagocytic monocytes in patients with asthma. The differential expression of CD16, CX3CR1 and CCR2 on monocyte subsets in peripheral blood indicates modulation of the inflammatory response and suggests a role for monocytes in asthma pathogenesis.

中文翻译：

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CD16+ 单核细胞亚群上 CCR2 和 CX3CR1 的差异表达与哮喘严重程度相关

单核细胞在免疫和炎症疾病中发挥重要作用，单核细胞亚群在某些情况下是疾病的预测因子。趋化因子受体、CCR2 和 CX3CR1 在单核细胞亚群上的表达与其功能有关，可用于表征。我们的目标是确定单核细胞亚群上的 CD14、CD16、CCR2 和 CX3CR1 是否是哮喘严重程度的潜在指标。从沙特阿拉伯哮喘患者和正常健康个体采集血样。根据 CD45 门控后 CD14 和 CD16 的表达，使用六色流式细胞术表型分析来鉴定人血单核细胞亚群。在经典 (CD14++CD16-)、中间 (CD14++CD16+) 和非经典 (CD14+CD16++) 亚群上分析 CCR2 和 CX3CR1 的表达，并与疾病严重程度相关。我们证明了重度哮喘患者血液中总 CD45 阳性单核细胞的百分比显着增加，但将轻度、中度和重度哮喘患者与健康个体进行比较时，单个单核细胞亚群的比例没有显着变化。与健康对照组相比，严重哮喘患者的中间和非经典亚群的 CD16 表达（平均荧光强度，MFI）降低。CX3CR1 表达也较低，在所有哮喘患者的非经典 CD14+CD16++ 亚群中表达 CX3CR1 的细胞百分比较低，这与表达 CCR2 的细胞百分比呈负相关。单核细胞上的 CCR2 表达表明哮喘患者有更多吞噬单核细胞的趋势。CD16的差异表达，