Abstract: Objective To explore the change of proportion of peripheral blood dendritic cells (DCs) in patients with stroke. Methods 56 patients (30 cases of cerebral infarction and 26 cases of cerebral hemorrhage) in Beijing Bo'ai hospital from June to September, 2014 and 14 healthy controls were investigated. The severity of stroke was assessed with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Flow cytometry analysis was employed to detect the proportion of DCs subtypes in the peripheral blood. Results No obvious difference was found in DCs between the stroke patients and the controls. Compared to the control group, the percentages of peripheral blood myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) decreased in the cerebral hemorrhage and the cerebral infarction subgroups (P<0.001). The percentages of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) reduced significantly in the cerebral hemorrhage and the cerebral infarction subgroups (P<0.05). The stroke patients were divided into NIHSS ≤7 subgroup and NIHSS>7 subgroup. The percentages of pDCs in the cerebral hemorrhage and the cerebral infarction patients were significantly lower in the NIHSS>7 subgroup than in the NIHSS ≤7 subgroup (P<0.05). While there was no statistical difference between NIHSS ≤7 subgroups and NIHSS>7 subgroups in the percentages of mDCs in the cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction patients. Conclusion The proportion of DCs subtypes in the peripheral blood in stroke patients changed significantly, indicating inflammation responds play a role in stroke.

Key words: stroke, cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, myeloid dendritic cell, plasmacytoid dendritic cell, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale