Abstract:

Objective To study the expression level of TLR2 and TLR9 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells （PBMC） from patients with genital herpes （GH）. Methods Venous blood samples were collected from 20 patients with GH and 10 normal human controls. Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression levels of TLR2 and TLR9 in PBMC from these samples. Serum levels of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α were measured by ELISA. Results The percentage of PBMCs expressing TLR2 or TLR9 was significantly higher in patients than in normal human controls （18.88% ± 15.31% vs 7.49% ± 1.55%, 85.29% ± 3.15% vs 22.23% ± 2.38%, both P < 0.05）. Compared with the normal human controls, increased serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 were observed in patients （91.25 ± 3.22 pg/ml vs 6.65 ± 1.27 pg/mL, 3.94 ± 0.57 pg/mL vs 2.13 ± 0.24 pg/mL, both P < 0.05）, together with a decrease in the serum level of TNF-α （12.07 ± 1.27 pg/mL vs 23.06 ± 4.62 pg/mL）. The expression levels of TLR2 and TLR9 significantly correlated with serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in patients with GH （all P < 0.01）. Conclusion The production and release of serum IL-6 and IL-10 might be mediated by TLR2 and TLR9 in patients with genital herpes.