Changes of TLR signaling molecule in peripheral blood of patients with chronic urticaria and its clinical significance

Objective To study the mRNA expression of Toll like receptor (TLR) signaling molecule in peripheral blood of patients with chronic urticaria. Methods The patients who were diagnosed with autoimmune chronic urticaria (AIU) during June 2014 - March 2018 were selected as the AIU group, and the healthy persons receiving medical examination in the same period were selected as the control group. The venous blood was collected to detect the mRNA expression of TLRs, TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 and the contents of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cytokines. Results The mRNA expression of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 in the peripheral blood and the content of interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-5 (IL-5), interleukin-17 (IL-17), interleukin-10 (IL-10), transforming growth factor -β1 (TGF-β1), and interleukin-35 (IL-35) in AIU group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P=0.000), while the content of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) in AIU group 0were significantly lower than those in the control group (P=0.000). The mRNA expression of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 were positively correlated with the serum contents of IL-4, IL-5, IL-17, IL-10, TGF-β1, IL-35 and negatively correlated with the serum contents of IFN-γ, IL-2. Conclusions The high mRNA expression of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 in peripheral blood of AIU patients can cause disorder of Th1/Th2/Th17/Treg immune response in the course of disease. Key words: Urticaria; Toll-like receptors; CD4-positive T-lymphocytes