Abstract:

Objective To detect the mRNA expression levels of RORγt and Foxp3 genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells（PBMCs） of children with atopic dermatitis（AD）, and to explore their possible roles in the development of AD. Methods Sixty-three children with AD and 54 age-matched normal children were eligible for this study. Real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR was carried out to measure the mRNA expressions of RORγt and Foxp3 genes in PBMCs of these subjects． Results The relative expression levels of Foxp3 and RORγt mRNA were significantly higher in children with AD compared with the normal controls （2.4060 ± 0.3355 vs. 1.1852 ± 0.4189, t = 17.50, P ＜ 0.01; 6.9130 ± 0.2046 vs. 2.7501 ± 0.2518, t = 98.63, P ＜ 0.01）. A statistical increase was observed in the level of RORγt mRNA in children with severe AD compared with children with mild and moderate AD（7.1203 ± 0.1056 vs. 6.8046 ± 0.1731 and 6.8655 ± 0.3671, t = 6.61, 5.23, both P ＜ 0.01）. No significant difference was noted in the expression of RORγt mRNA between children with mild and moderate AD, or in the Foxp3 mRNA expression among children with mild, moderate and severe AD. The severity of AD was positively correlated with the level of RORγt mRNA（r = 0.62, P ＜ 0.01）, but uncorrelated with the level of Foxp3 mRNA（r = 0.04, P > 0.05）. Conclusions The high expressions of RORγt and Foxp3 genes may be involved in the pathogenesis of AD, and the severity of AD is positively correlated with the expression intensity of RORγt gene．

Key words: Foxp3 gene