↓ Skip to main content

Enhanced IL-6/phosphorylated STAT3 signaling is related to the imbalance of circulating T follicular helper/T follicular regulatory cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Overview of attention for article published in Arthritis Research & Therapy, August 2018
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
2 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
71 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
49 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Enhanced IL-6/phosphorylated STAT3 signaling is related to the imbalance of circulating T follicular helper/T follicular regulatory cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Published in
Arthritis Research & Therapy, August 2018
DOI 10.1186/s13075-018-1690-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Qian Niu, Zhuo-chun Huang, Xiao-juan Wu, Ya-xiong Jin, Yun-fei An, Ya-mei Li, Huan Xu, Bin Yang, Lan-lan Wang

Abstract

Follicular helper T (Tfh) cells are specialized in helping B lymphocytes, which play a central role in autoimmune diseases that have a major B cell component, such as in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells control the over-activation of Tfh and B cells in germinal centers. Dysregulation of Tfh cells and Tfr cells has been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of some autoimmune diseases. However, the balance of Tfh and Tfr cells, and their roles in the development and progression of RA are still not clear. In this study, we enrolled 44 patients with RA (20 patients with active RA and 24 patients with inactive RA) and 20 healthy controls, and analyzed the frequencies of circulating Tfh and Tfr cells, expression of programmed death-1 (PD-1), inducible co-stimulator (ICOS), intracellular IL-21, and pSTAT3 in Tfh cells, and serum levels of IL-6. The correlation among these parameters and that of Tfh or Tfr cells with disease activity were also analyzed. Patients with RA (especially active RA) had higher frequencies of Tfh cells, but lower percentages of Tfr cells, thereby resulting in elevated ratios of Tfh/Tfr. Expression levels of PD-1 and IL-21 in Tfh cells were higher in patients with RA than in healthy subjects, while no difference in ICOS expression was observed between patients and controls. Both pSTAT3 expression and serum IL-6 levels increased in patients with RA, and positive correlation between them was observed. Additionally, pSTAT3 expression was positively correlated with Tfh cell frequency. The Disease Activity Score in 28 joints based on C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP) was negatively correlated with Tfr cell frequency, but was positively correlated with both Tfh/Tfr ratio and PD-1 expression. Results demonstrated that enhanced IL-6/pSTAT3 signaling may contribute to promotion of Tfh cells, consequently skewing the ratio of Tfh to Tfr cells, which may be crucial for disease progression in RA.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 49 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 49 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 20%
Student > Bachelor 8 16%
Researcher 5 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 8%
Student > Master 4 8%
Other 5 10%
Unknown 13 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Immunology and Microbiology 12 24%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 10 20%
Medicine and Dentistry 7 14%
Business, Management and Accounting 2 4%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 2 4%
Other 4 8%
Unknown 12 24%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 31 August 2018.
All research outputs
#17,292,294
of 25,385,509 outputs
Outputs from Arthritis Research & Therapy
#2,536
of 3,381 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#222,237
of 344,555 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Arthritis Research & Therapy
#57
of 67 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,385,509 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,381 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.2. This one is in the 16th percentile – i.e., 16% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 344,555 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 26th percentile – i.e., 26% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 67 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 11th percentile – i.e., 11% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.