Decreased CTLA4+ and Foxp3+ CD25highCD4+ Cells in Induced Sputum from Patients with Mild Atopic Asthma
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Details of the comparisons between airway and peripheral blood regulatory T cells (Tregs) in patients with atopic asthma are still unclear. The objective of this study is to investigate the profiles of both airway and circulating Tregs in atopic asthma. METHODS: We measured the numbers of Tregs and eosinophils in induced sputum and peripheral blood in 28 patients with mild atopic asthma and compared these with numbers in 18 healthy controls. The frequency (%) of Tregs (surface CTLA4+, intracellular Foxp3+, and CTLA4+Foxp3+ on CD25highCD4+ T cells) in sputum and blood was determined by intracellular 5-color flow cytometry. We also correlated the numbers with the level of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in asthmatics. RESULTS: The mean frequencies of cells expressing CTLA4+ (19.4 ± 2.1%, p = 0.075), Foxp3+ (16.4 ± 3.3%, p = 0.001), and CTLA4+Foxp3+ (7.0 ± 1.1%, p = 0.008) in induced sputum from asthmatics were significantly lower than controls (27.2 ± 3.7%, 37.4 ± 4.7%, and 18.2 ± 3.6%, respectively), whereas in peripheral blood, there was no inter-group difference in the frequencies of cells expressing CTLA4+ (7.1 ± 1.5% vs 5.7 ± 1.7%, p > 0.05), Foxp3+ (35.7 ± 3.2% vs 21.1 ± 3.9%, p > 0.05), and CTLA4+Foxp3+ (6.6 ± 1.5% vs 4.2 ± 1.0%, p > 0.05). Moreover, the frequency of CD25highCD4+ cells expressing CTLA4+, but not Foxp3+, in induced sputum was associated with AHR (r = 0.60, p = 0.009) and airway eosinophilic inflammation (r = -0.60, p = 0.008) in asthmatics. CONCLUSIONS: Airway, but not circulating, Tregs are decreased in mild atopic asthmatics, and are negatively correlated to an increase of airway eosinophilic inflammation and AHR.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".