The Association Between Regulatory T-Cells and T Helper 17 Cells with Blood Pressure in Hypertension

Background: The immune system is currently been postulated to play a role in hypertension. The imbalance of Regulatory T-cells and T helper-17 cells has been found to be the cause of hypertension in animal studies. Method and Results: This case-control study was conducted at the National Cardiovascular Center of Harapan Kita and Universitas Indonesia Hospital from August to December 2022. Subjects with essential hypertension and normotension who visited the outpatient clinic were consecutively included. A flow cytometry examination was performed to quantify Regulatory T-cell and T helper-17 cell levels in the blood. The study consisted of 40 subjects from each group. The results showed that Regulatory T-cells were lower in the hypertension group compared to the normotension group (p < 0.001). We observed a strong correlation between Regulatory T-cells and both systolic blood pressure (r = -0.733, p < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = -0.613, p < 0.001). T helper-17 cells were also higher in the hypertension group (p < 0.001). Furthermore, we identified a moderate correlation between T helper-17 cells and systolic blood pressure (r = 0.357, p < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.242 and p = 0.015). The ratio of T helper-17 cells to Regulatory T-cells was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in subjects with hypertension. Conclusion: We revealed an association between Regulatory T-cells and T helper-17 cells in human hypertension. We further concluded that human hypertension is characterized by low Regulatory T-cells and high T helper-17 cells.