Skowera A, Cleare A, Blair D, Bevis L, Wessely S C, Peakman M
Department of Immunology, Guy's, King's & St Thomas's School of Medicine, King's College London, London, UK.
Clin Exp Immunol. 2004 Feb;135(2):294-302. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.2004.02354.x.
The aetiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is not known. However, it has been suggested that CFS may be associated with underlying immune activation resulting in a Th2-type response. We measured intracellular production of interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-2; type 1 cytokines), IL-4 (type 2) and IL-10 (regulatory) by both polyclonally stimulated and non-stimulated CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes from patients with CFS and control subjects by flow cytometry. After polyclonal activation we found evidence of a significant bias towards Th2- and Tc2-type immune responses in CFS compared to controls. In contrast, levels of IFN-gamma, IL-2 and IL-10-producing cells were similar in both study groups. Non-stimulated cultures revealed significantly higher levels of T cells producing IFN-gamma or IL-4 in CFS patients. Concluding, we show evidence for an effector memory cell bias towards type 2 responsiveness in patients with CFS, as well as ongoing type 0 immune activation in unstimulated cultures of peripheral blood cells.
慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）的病因尚不清楚。然而，有人提出CFS可能与潜在的免疫激活有关，从而导致Th2型反应。我们通过流式细胞术测量了慢性疲劳综合征患者和对照受试者经多克隆刺激和未刺激的CD4和CD8淋巴细胞产生的细胞内干扰素（IFN）-γ、白细胞介素（IL）-2（1型细胞因子）、IL-4（2型）和IL-10（调节性细胞因子）。多克隆激活后，我们发现与对照组相比，慢性疲劳综合征患者有明显偏向Th2和Tc2型免疫反应的证据。相比之下，两个研究组中产生IFN-γ、IL-2和IL-10的细胞水平相似。未刺激的培养物显示，慢性疲劳综合征患者产生IFN-γ或IL-4的T细胞水平显著更高。总之，我们证明了慢性疲劳综合征患者存在效应记忆细胞偏向2型反应性的证据，以及外周血细胞未刺激培养物中持续存在的0型免疫激活。
