Figure 4

Increased Treg frequency in patients with neuropathic pain. In addition to the TH17 cell quantification, the number of Tregs was analyzed after intra- and extracellular staining procedure. CD4 ⁺ CD25^highCD127^lowFoxP3⁺ were defined as Tregs. The results show a significantly increased frequency of Tregs in patients with neuropathic pain as compared to healthy controls. To confirm the quantitative observations of the Treg frequency, the relative mRNA expression of the Treg-specific transcription factor FoxP3 as well as TGF-β was determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Affirmatively, increased mRNA levels of FoxP3 and TGF-β were consistent with the flow cytometric analyses. Regulatory T-cell, Treg; T helper cell, TH; Forkhead-box-protein 3, FoxP3; Transforming growth factor-β, TGF-β; *P <0.05 versus healthy controls.