Enhanced T-cell activation and chemokine-associated function in CD14-positive cells from venous sinus blood in sub-acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

Background: Patients with sub-acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis experience (SA.CVST) severe symptoms compared to two other venous sinus-related diseases, including chronic cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (C.CVST) and idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether the different immune reactions in different venous sinuses are related.

Methods: Stagnant blood in the cerebral venous sinuses was extracted by passing a microcatheter and CD14-positive cells were sorted by magnetic beads and subjected to RNA-seq sequencing.

Results: Compared to patients with IIH, 128 genes were significantly down-regulated and 373 genes were significantly up-regulated in the sub-acute CVST samples. The functions of these genes were mainly focused on "immune response", "T cell activation" and "plasma membrane". Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) showed T cell survival and activation-related function significantly unregulated in sub-acute CVST. On the other hand, there were 366 genes down-regulated in chronic CVST and 75 genes up-regulated in chronic CVST. In functional annotation, these differently expressed genes were enriched in the "extracellular region", "chemokine-mediated signaling pathway" and "immune response". GSEA analysis confirmed that chemokine-related functions were all up-regulated in sub-acute CVST and monocyte-macrophage adhesion functions were also significantly up-regulated.

Conclusion: This study suggested the CD14-positive created an activated immune response in sub-acute CVST.