Perforin level in CD4⁺ T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

CD4⁺ T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) exhibit increased expression of various proteins contributing to defective function of CD4⁺ T cells. We evaluated the transcript and protein levels of perforin (PRF1) in CD4⁺ T cells from SLE patients (n = 41) and healthy individuals (n = 34). The CD4⁺ T cells were obtained by a positive biomagnetic separation system. The amounts of mRNA were determined by reverse transcription and real-time quantitative PCR. The protein levels in the CD4⁺ T cells were evaluated by Western blotting analysis. We observed significantly higher levels of PRF1 protein (p = 0.013) in SLE CD4⁺ T cells than in controls. There was no significant increase in PRF1 transcript levels (p = 0.908) in CD4⁺ T cells from SLE patients as compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, we did not observe a correlation between PRF1 transcript and protein levels in SLE CD4⁺ T cells and disease activity expressed by the SLEDAI scale. We confirmed previous observations that demonstrated higher levels of PRF1 protein in CD4⁺ T cells from SLE patients. However, we did not find a correlation between PRF1 transcripts and proteins in CD4⁺ T cells and SLE disease activity.