Major Lymphocyte Populations
There were no differences in the relative percentage of CD3+, CD4+ or
CD8+ T cells between groups. Among the subpopulations of CD4+ T cells,
only the central memory compartment was significantly different between
groups, being expanded in the PR group, compared with the other two.
More differences were observed in the subpopulations of CD8+ T cells.
Similar to what we observed within CD4+ T cells, patients in PR showed
an increased central memory compartment, and a concomitant reduction in
the percentage of naïve CD8+ cells, when compared with the other groups.
Meanwhile, patients with Act-SLE presented a decreased percentage of
CD8+ effector memory cells. The percentages of the subpopulations
analyzed and the p values for the comparisons are described in Table 3.