[Changes in the percentage of activated lymphocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in patients with clinical improvement of sarcoidosis].

Unlabelled: Sarcoidosis is characterized by an accumulation of the activated lymphocytes in affected organs. The aim of the study was the analysis of lymphocytes activation markers in a bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in sarcoidosis and the influence of the disease outcome on the changes of cells subpopulations.

Material And Methods: We performed the study on 12 patients with the regression of sarcoidosis after the mean period of the observation 8.1 +/- 3.8 months.

Results: We observed a tendency toward a BALF cellularity normalization: lowering of the percentage of CD4+ lymphocytes (mean: 67.1% vs. 57.8%, p = 0.047), lowering of the CD4+/CD8+ ratio (mean: 6.3 +/- 5.4 vs. 3.7 +/- 5.2, p < or = 0.05), lowering of the percentage of HLA-DR+ lymphocytes (mean: 65% < or = 16.4 vs. 43.9% +/- 18.0, p = 0.05), lowering of the percentage of CD25+ lymphocytes (mean: 5.7% vs. 3.1%, p < or = 0.05) and CD4+CD25+ (mean: 4.0% vs. 2.4%, p = 0.011).

Conclusion: The clinical improvement of sarcoidosis is accompanied by the lowering of the percentage of activated lymphocytes in BALF.