Proinflammatory plasticity towards Th17 paradigm of regulatory T cells consistent with elevated prevalence of TGFBR2 variants in elderly patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia

Table 3 Comparison between elderly primary ITP patients with and without TGFBR2 variants

	Elderly ITP (n = 44)	Elderly ITP with TGFBR2 variants (n = 6)	Elderly ITP without TGFBR2 variants (n = 38)	p value
Female sex, n (%)	26 (59.1)	5 (83.3)	21 (55.3)	0.194
Age, years	65 ± 10	61 ± 13	66 ± 9	0.233
Platelet count, × 10⁹/L	16 ± 8	13 ± 10	17 ± 16	0.615
Response, n (%)
CR	18 (40.9)	1 (16.7)	17 (44.7)	0.194
PR	17 (38.6)	5 (83.3)	12 (31.6)	0.016
NR	9 (20.5)	0	9 (23.7)	0.181
Positive ANA, n (%)	12 (27.3)	1 (16.7)	11 (28.9)	0.530
Lymphocyte subgroups, %
CD19⁺	16 ± 10	14 ± 13	17 ± 10	0.659
CD3⁺CD4⁺	37 ± 11	39 ± 12	37 ± 11	0.765
CD3⁺CD8⁺	27 ± 14	21 ± 9	29 ± 14	0.366
CD16⁺CD56⁺	14 ± 7	23 ± 13	12 ± 6	0.294
Tregs, %
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3⁺	1.2 ± 0.9	1.4 ± 0.8	1.1 ± 0.9	0.594
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3⁺IFN-γ⁺	8.3 ± 4.8	6.1 ± 4.2	9.0 ± 4.9	0.261
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3⁺IL-13⁺	7.4 ± 4.5	5.7 ± 4.1	7.9 ± 4.6	0.349
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3⁺IL-17⁺	16.9 ± 13.8	16.8 ± 8.8	17.0 ± 14.7	0.985
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3^hiCD45RA⁻	21.8 ± 16.3	26.2 ± 3.2	20.5 ± 18.5	0.466
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3^intCD45RA⁺	21.4 ± 12.3	23.1 ± 10.2	20.9 ± 13.1	0.702
CD4⁺CD25^hiFoxp3^intCD45RA⁻	51.3 ± 15.0	46.5 ± 7.1	52.9 ± 16.6	0.371

CR: complete remission; PR: partial remission; NR: no remission; ANA: anti-nuclear antibody; Treg: regulatory T cell

ISSN: 1471-2172