Expression of inducible co-stimulator on peripheral blood T lymphocytes in patients with lupus nephritis

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease and lupus nephritis (LN) represents a major clinical manifestation. Studies have shown that elevated inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) in SLE. The purpose of the study was to investigate the expression of ICOS on T cells in patients with LN. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to analyze the expression of ICOS on peripheral blood T lymphocytes in LN patients, SLE patients without nephritis, and healthy controls. The expression of ICOS on CD4 + CD45RO + and CD8 + CD4RO + T cells was significantly increased in SLE patients when compared with healthy controls (P < 0.001). In addition, ICOS expression in patients with nephritis was higher than those without nephritis (P < 0.01). Taken together, our results suggest that ICOS co-stimulatory pathway is important in the pathogenesis of LN; blockade of the pathway might represent a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of LN.