ABSTRACT

Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, multisystemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. Specific criteria to assess the activity of the disease, which has a course with remissions and relapses, have not been found; thus the evaluation of the activity of the disease is mainly based on the clinical findings. Therefore, there is a need for laboratory markers that can be correlated with clinical activity. In this report, we aimed to research parameters that may be used as activation marker in BD.

Expressions of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, HLA-DR, TCR gd, TCR ab, coexpressions of CD3/CD25, CD19/CD25, CD19/HLA-DR, CD3/TCR gd, TCR gd/CD25, TCR gd/CD40L, TCR gd/CD 69, CD3/ TCR ab, TCR ab/ CD25, TCR ab/ CD40L, and TCR ab/CD69 were evaluated in active and inactive Behçet's patients. CD4/CD8 ratio was calculated and compared between the two groups.

TCR gd was found to be 5.064±2.079% in the active group, whereas it was 8.347±3.771% in the inactive group; there was a statistically significant difference between these data (p<0.01). TCR gd/CD40L expression was found to be 0.337±0.298% in the active group, and 2.165±1.896% in the inactive group; which showed a statistically significant difference between these data (p<0.01). No significant differences were obtained for the other parameters between the two groups.

The findings of this study support that although the gd T cells play a very important role in BD, more detailed studies needed.