Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 24|pp 12685—12707

Combination of lymphocyte number and function in evaluating host immunity

Ying Luo¹, Yalong Xie², Weijie Zhang², Qun Lin¹, Guoxing Tang¹, Shiji Wu¹, Min Huang¹, Botao Yin¹, Jin Huang¹, Wei Wei¹, Jing Yu¹, Hongyan Hou¹, Liyan Mao¹, Weiyong Liu¹, Feng Wang¹, Ziyong Sun¹

¹Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
²Institute of Organ Transplantation, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

* Equal contribution

Received: August 29, 2019Accepted: November 30, 2019Published: December 20, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102595

Copyright © 2019 Luo et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Accurate monitoring of host immunity is hampered by the flaws of conventional tests. The relationship between lymphocyte number and function is unknown. The function of lymphocytes was analyzed based on IFN-γ secretion assay. Lymphocyte number and function was investigated in individuals under various states. The number of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells was gradually decreased, whereas the function of them was gradually increased with increasing age. A significantly negative correlation existed between the number and function of both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells. Differently, both the number and function of NK cells are maintained at a high level after birth. Staying up all night was found to impair the function of CD4⁺, CD8⁺ T cells, or NK cells. Lymphocyte number and function were both decreased in patients with immunosuppressive conditions or opportunistic infections, while the opposite phenomenon was observed in patients with some autoimmune diseases (except for NK cells). In kidney transplant recipients, the number and function of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells were increased or decreased when rejection or infection occurred. We demonstrated that evaluation of host immunity based on combination of lymphocyte number and function plays an important role in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of diseases.