Toll-Like Receptor 2 Expression and Peripheral Blood CD4+/CD8+ T Cell Ratio in COPD

as well as the relationship of these cells with pulmonary functions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.MATerIAL ANd MeTHods: Forty COPD patients and 40 healthy volunteers were included. Participants were analysed in four groups according to their smoking status. Peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and monocyte TLR-2 expression were measured by flow cytometry in the whole study population.resULTs: No significant difference was observed in TLR-2 expression, number of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio between the study groups. CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio and FEV1/FVC were found to have a mild positive correlation (r=0.295, p=0.022). A mild negative correlation was observed between smoking intensity and CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio (r=-0.274, p=0.034).CoNCLUsIoN: We demonstrated a mild correlation between pulmonary functions and peripheral blood CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio. However, we did not find a significant difference in TLR-2 expression of CD14+ monocytes in patients with airway obstruction

Toll-Like Receptor 2 Expression and Peripheral Blood CD4+/CD8+ T Cell Ratio in COPD

OBJECTIVES : We aimed to evaluate toll- like receptor 2 (TLR- 2) expression on monocytes and peripheral blood CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio, as well as the relationship of these cells with pulmonary functions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients

12 Original Article Relationship Between Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide Antibodies Positivity and HLA-DRB1 Shared Epitope Alleles in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis in Turkey

Objective: The most characteristic genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles, encode for a common amino acid sequence in the peptide-presenting part of the HLA class II molecule. These SE alleles have been described recently to be a risk factor for the development of antibodies against citrullinated proteins in RA. The current study was performed to investigate the association between the cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) and HLA-DR1 HLA-DRB1 shared epitope alleles in patients with RA in Turkey. Materials and Methods: Sixty patients with RA who were newly diagnosed or under conventional treatment in our clinic and 60 healthy volunteers as controls were enrolled in the study. In patients with RA anti-CCP levels were investigated with enzymelinke