ACHADOS IMUNOFENOTÍPICOS DE LEUCÓCITOS EM GATOS

Abstract

Immunophenotyping is a flow cytometric technique that has been used in medicine for a long time but has just recently begun to be applied to veterinary medicine. It makes it possible to assess, diagnose and stage neoplasias after quantifying specific cells, which can guide the treatment and monitoring of the disease. For that, however, it is important to know the normal distribution of cells in each species. The present study aims to standardize the immunophenotypic pattern of healthy cats, quantifying lymphocytic cells expressing CD4, CD5, CD8, CD8β, CD21, CD22 and MHC II by flow cytometry. Blood with EDTA was collected from 32 healthy animals and analyzed on FACScan (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). The mean concentration of cells expressing each antigen was: CD4 24.9%, CD8 12.3%, CD22 32.9%, MHC II 64.2%, and the proportion CD4:CD8 was 2.31%. The rest of the antigens expressed by the cells did not produce statistically significant results, so the median was used for analysis. The medians, as presented, were 24.2%, 25.3% and 11.4% respectively for CD5, CD21 and CD8β. Although further research will be necessary to verify the presented values, this paper provides a basis to set a normal lymphocyte profile reference for cats.