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Alterations in B cell subsets correlate with body composition parameters in female adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Author
Abstract
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Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe eating disorder and often associated with altered humoral immune responses. However, distinct B cell maturation stages in peripheral blood in adolescents with AN have not been characterized. Treatment effects and the relationship between clinical and B cell parameters are also not fully understood. Here we investigated the phenotype of circulating B cell subsets and the relationship with body composition in adolescents with AN before (T0, n = 24) and after 6 weeks (T1, n = 20) of treatment. Using multi-parameter flow cytometry, we found increased percentages of antigen-experienced B cells and plasmablasts in patients with AN compared to healthy controls (n = 20). In contrast, percentages of CD1dCD5 B cells and transitional B cells with immunoregulatory roles were reduced at T0 and T1. These B cell frequencies correlated positively with fat mass, fat mass index (FMI), free fat mass index, and body mass index standard deviation score. In addition, scavenger-like receptor CD5 expression levels were downregulated on transitional B cells and correlated with fat mass and FMI in AN. Our findings that regulatory B cell subgroups were reduced in AN and their strong relationship with body composition parameters point toward an impact of immunoregulatory B cells in the pathogenesis of AN.

Year of Publication
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2021
Journal
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Scientific reports
Volume
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11
Issue
:
1
Number of Pages
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1125
Date Published
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2021
URL
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80693-4
DOI
:
10.1038/s41598-020-80693-4
Short Title
:
Sci Rep
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