Study on the Expression of Human β-Defensin-3 in Sporotrichosis Lesions and Its Clinical Correlations

Expression characteristics of hBD-3 in sporotrichosis lesions and its correlation with clinical characteristics: Compared with healthy controls, hBD-3 expression was significantly increased in sporotrichosis lesions (P < 0.0001), mainly localized to the spinous and basal layers of the epidermis. hBD-3 expression was higher in the early stage of disease duration (≤2 months; P = 0.0296), and was negatively correlated with disease duration within the first year (r = -0.2518, P = 0.0282). hBD-3 expression was higher in lesions from patients with the lymphocutaneous form than in those with the fixed cutaneous form (P = 0.0120). hBD-3 expression was also significantly negatively correlated with fungal burden in lesions (r = -0.6008, P < 0.0001).2.

Correlation of hBD-3 expression with local and systemic inflammatory responses in sporotrichosis lesions: hBD-3 expression was significantly positively correlated with the area of dermal MPO+ neutrophil infiltration (r = 0.5922, P = 0.0011), but showed no significant correlation with the infiltration of CD4+ T cells (r = 0.1038, P = 0.6633), CD8+ T cells (r = -0.2722, P = 0.2457) or CD68+ macrophages (r = 0.1434, P = 0.5701).