Differential Expression of T-bet and GATA3 in Egyptian Children with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

• Published in: Indian journal of hematology & blood transfusion Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 460 - 467
• Main Authors: Hammam, Amira Ahmed, Ezzat, Dina Ahmed, Elwahab, Marwa Hamed Abd
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01-12-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Blood Transfusion Medicine; Cytoplasm; Gene expression; Hematology; Human Genetics; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Oncology; Original; Original Article; T cell receptors; Transcription factors; GATA3; ITP; T-bet; RT-PCR
• ISSN: 0971-4502; 0974-0449; 0974-0449; 0971-4502
• DOI: 10.1007/s12288-015-0625-z

GATA3 and T-box (T-bet) expressed in T-cells are transcriptional factors that play a critical role in development of Th2 and Th1 immunity respectively. GATA3 is expressed during Th2 differentiation and T-bet is expressed exclusively in Th1 cells. Thus, a balance between GATA3 and T-bet is believed to control Th2/Th1 polarization. Therefore, the high expression of T-bet and low expression of GATA3 indicate the existence of Th1 polarization in children with acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). This might be related to the regulation of T-bet and GATA3. The objective of this work was to study the expression of transcriptional factors T-bet and GATA3 m RNA in children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and correlate it with clinical findings, laboratory findings, and outcome of patients. In this study the expression of T-bet and GATA3 genes was analysed in 20 normal healthy individuals and 40 children with ITP (20 acute and 20 persistent) using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction to investigate a possible relation, association or correlation with the type of ITP and prognosis. T-bet was expressed significantly in 60 % of acute ITP children (12/20) (
P
value 0.001) and not expressed in persistent ITP children (0/20), while GATA3 was expressed in 25 % of persistent ITP patients (5/20) (
P
value 0.017) and not expressed in acute ITP patients (0/20). Both genes were not detected in healthy controls. We concluded that the high expression of T-bet and the low expression of GATA3 indicate the existence of Th1 polarization in children with acute ITP. This might be related to the regulation of T-bet and GATA3. Intensive studies of abnormal cytokine profiles in ITP have led to cytokine therapies that exploit the effects of IFN-γ on Th2 cells, but such therapies are often ineffective to develop safe and effective therapeutic tools. Targeting specific molecules such as T-bet and GATA3 may be a novel therapeutic tool in ITP.