Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disorder caused by self-reactive Th1 lymphocytes, while Th2 cells may confer protection. The Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation are regulated by specific transcription factors, especially T-bet and GATA-3, respectively. This investigation aimed to measure the T-bet and GATA-3 expression by Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) obtained from MS patients after specific and non-specific in vitro stimulation. METHODS: The PBMCs were separated from 22 patients with MS and 20 healthy individuals. They were cultured at 37°C for 24 h in the absence of a stimulator or in the presence of Myelin oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) or Phytohemagglutinin (PHA) at a concentration of 10 μg/mL. Then the T-bet and GATA-3 expression was measured by real time-PCR. RESULTS: The T-bet expression was enhanced, while the GATA-3 expression diminished. Therefore the expression of T-bet/GATA-3 ratio diminished in not-stimulated, MOG-stimulated and PHA-stimulated PBMCs from MS patients compared with equal cultures from the healthy individuals (P<0.01, P<0.01 and P<0.01, for T-bet; P<0.03, P<0.01 and P<0.02, for GATA-3; P<0.01, P<0.001 and P<0.01 for T-bet/GATA-3 ratio, respectively). The not-stimulated, MOG-stimulated, and PHA-stimulated PBMCs from men with MS expressed higher amounts of GATA-3 than equal cells from MS women (P<0.05, P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: These results probably indicate an imbalance in Th1/Th2 cells in the level of transcription factors with a tendency toward Th1 cells in MS. The clinical utilization of the transcription factors as novel biomarkers of MS should be evaluated in further studies.