en ايمونولوژي Immunology پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> PPreviously, it was shown that exhausted CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) co-express the two immune-inhibitory receptors, Tim-3 and PD-1. Present study investigated the expression of Blimp-1, a transcription factor involved in T cell exhaustion, in patients with CLL.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from 25 untreated CLL patients and 15 sex- and age-matched normal subjects. CLL patients were clinically classified according to the Rai staging system. The relative expression of Blimp-1 mRNA was determined by quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) after normalization with &beta;-actin.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> Expression of Blimp-1 mRNA was much higher in CLL patients than in normal controls (p=0.001). Moreover, Blimp-1 was more expressed in patients with advanced clinical stages of CLL compared to those with early stages of the disease (p=0.01). Interestingly, the Blimp-1 expression was correlated with the frequencies of exhausted Tim-3+/PD-1+/CD4+ and Tim-3+/PD-1+/CD8+ T cells in CLL patients.<br> <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results highlight the role of Blimp-1 transcription factor in T cell exhaustion of CLL.<br> &nbsp;</div> Exhausted T cell, Blimp-1, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia 5 10 http://rmm.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-917-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Saeid Taghiloo saeid.taghiloo@yahoo.com 10031947532846006762 10031947532846006762 No Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Esmaeil Allahmoradi s.allahmoradi69@gmail.com 10031947532846006763 10031947532846006763 No Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Mohsen Tehrani drmtehrani@gmail.com 10031947532846006764 10031947532846006764 No Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Ghasem Janbabaei janbabai@yahoo.com 10031947532846006765 10031947532846006765 No Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Ramin Shekarriz raminshf@gmail.com 10031947532846006766 10031947532846006766 No Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Hossein Asgarian-Omran asgarianhossein@yahoo.com 10031947532846006767 10031947532846006767 Yes Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran