Original Article Frequency of CD4þCD25high Regulatory T Cells in the Peripheral Blood of Egyptian Children With Autism

Autoimmunity may have a role in autism, although the origins of autoimmunity in autism are unknown. CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells play an important role in the establishment of immunological self-tolerance, thereby preventing autoim-munity. The authors are the first to study the frequency of CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells in the blood of 30 autistic and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy children. Patients with autism had significantly lower frequency of CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells than healthy children (P <.001). These cells were deficient in 73.3 % of children with autism. Autistic patients with allergic manifestations (40%) and those with a family history of autoimmunity (53.3%) had a significantly lower frequency of CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells than those without (P <.01 and P <.001, respec-tively). In conclusion, CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells are deficient in many children with autism. Deficiency of these cells may contribute to autoimmunity in a subgroup of chil-dren with autism. Consequently, CD4þCD25high regulatory T cells could be new potential therapeutic targets in these patients