ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1585378
Circulating CD8 T cells from patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis are functionally impaired
Provisionally accepted
Yiqiao Chen1
Chiara Tontini1
Isabella Tosi2
Jonathan N. Barker2
Paola Di Meglio2Christopher E.M. Griffiths3,4
Rajia Bahri1
Silvia Bulfone-Paus1*- 1Department of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
- 2St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, School of Basic and Medical Biosciences, King's College London, London, England, United Kingdom
- 3Dermatology Centre, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, northern care alliance nhs foundation trust, Manchester, United Kingdom
- 4Department of Dermatology, King's College London, London, England, United Kingdom
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Psoriasis is a systemic, immune-mediated, inflammatory skin disease in which T cells have been found to play a significant role. The phenotypic and functional properties of circulating CD8 T cells in the pathogenesis of the disease are still ill-defined. Objective: This study aimed to assess changes in the phenotype, activation status and mediator release of CD8 T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis.Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis and healthy individuals were used to investigate the CD8 T cell immune phenotype and mediator release upon in vitro TCR-independent (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) plus ionomycin (ION)) or TCR-dependent (anti-CD3/CD28) activation by flow cytometry.Results: Patients with psoriasis exhibited reduced circulating CD8 memory T cell frequency compared to healthy controls. Additionally, although CD8 T cell subsets showed similar levels of the skin homing marker CCR4, they demonstrated a significant upregulation of B- and T-lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) expression compared to healthy individuals. Upon CD8 T cell activation, IL-17A and IL-17F were expressed at low and comparable levels in psoriasis patients and healthy controls. In contrast, CD69, IFNγ, and Granzyme B were significantly decreased in anti-CD3/CD28-activated CD8 T cell subsets. PASI scores positively correlated with IFNγ-producing CD8 T memory cells and negatively with TNF-producing CD8- T cell subsets.Conclusion: Patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis showed a significant decrease in CD8 T memory cells and reduced release of cytotoxic mediators by CD8 T cells. Thus, this indicates that psoriasis impacts the functionality of circulating CD8 T cells.
Keywords: Flow Cytometry, CD8 T cells, Multiparametric analysis, unsupervised clustering, Immunophenotyping, peripheral blood mononuclear cells
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Tontini, Tosi, Barker, Di Meglio, Griffiths, Bahri and Bulfone-Paus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Silvia Bulfone-Paus, Department of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.