Fletcher Helen A, Owiafe Patrick, Jeffries David, Hill Philip, Rook Graham A W, Zumla Alimuddin, Doherty T Mark, Brookes Roger H
The Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK.
Immunology. 2004 Aug;112(4):669-73. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2004.01922.x.
Expression of interleukin (IL)-4 is increased in tuberculosis and thought to be detrimental. We show here that in healthy contacts there is increased expression of its naturally occurring antagonist, IL-4delta2 (IL-4delta2). We identified contacts by showing that their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) released interferon (IFN)-gamma in response to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigen 6 kDa early secretory antigenic target (ESAT-6). Fresh unstimulated PBMC from these contacts contained higher levels of mRNA encoding IL-4delta2 (P=0.002) than did cells from ESAT-6 negative donors (noncontacts). These data indicate that contact with M. tuberculosis induces unusual, previously unrecognized, immunological events. We tentatively hypothesize that progression to active disease might depend upon the underlying ratio of IL-4 to IL-4delta2.
白细胞介素(IL)-4在结核病中表达增加,被认为具有有害作用。我们在此表明,在健康接触者中,其天然存在的拮抗剂IL-4δ2(IL-4delta2)的表达增加。我们通过显示他们的外周血单个核细胞(PBMC)对结核分枝杆菌特异性抗原6 kDa早期分泌性抗原靶标(ESAT-6)产生干扰素(IFN)-γ来识别接触者。来自这些接触者的新鲜未刺激PBMC中编码IL-4δ2的mRNA水平(P = 0.002)高于ESAT-6阴性供体(非接触者)的细胞。这些数据表明,与结核分枝杆菌接触会引发异常的、以前未被认识到的免疫事件。我们初步假设,进展为活动性疾病可能取决于IL-4与IL-4δ2的潜在比例。