Study on the Expression of Treg Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Severe Depression and Its Clinical Value

LIN Shize; WANG Jinyi

doi:10.13919/j.issn.2095-6274.ZHJY202410052

Abstract：Objective To investigate the relationship between peripheral blood regulatory T cells(Tregs),helper T cell 17(Th 17),and the Th17/Treg ratio with the onset,severity,and treatment outcomes of depres-sion.Methods A simple random sampling method was employed to select 78 patients diagnosed with depression at Quanzhou Third Hospital from February 2022 to January 2023(depression group).These patients were catego-rized into mild,moderate,and severe depression groups based on their scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HAMD).Concurrently,56 healthy individuals were selected as the control group.The levels of Tregs,Th17 cells,and the Th17/Treg ratio were measured and compared among the groups.The predictive value of Treg levels,Th 17 levels,and the Th17/Treg ratio for depression severity was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curves,and the differences in predictive value were statistically tested using the DeLong method.Re-sults Compared to the healthy control group,patients with depression exhibited a significant decrease in Treg levels(P＜0.001),while Th17 cell levels and the Th17/Treg ratio were significantly elevated(P＜0.001).Treg levels showed a negative correlation with depression severity,gradually declining as the severity increased.Conversely,Th 17 cell levels and the Th17/Treg ratio demonstrated a positive correlation with depression severity,increasing with disease progression.The combined assessment of Tregs,Th17,and the Th17/Treg ratio yielded a higher area under the curve(AUC)for predicting depression severity compared to Tregs alone(P＜0.001).In terms of treatment efficacy,patients in the effective group had higher Treg levels(P＜0.001)and lower Th17 levels and Th17/Treg ratios(P＜0.001)compared to the ineffective group.Additionally,the AUC for predicting treatment ef-ficacy using Tregs or Th 17 cells alone was lower than that obtained from the combined assessment of all three pa-rameters(P＜0.001).Conclusion There is a significant imbalance in peripheral blood Tregs,Th17 cells,and the Th17/Treg ratio in patients with depression.The combined assessment of these parameters enhances the evaluation of depression severity and treatment outcomes,offering potential biomarkers for the study of the pathological mech-anisms of depression and for personalized treatment strategies.