Skendros Panagiotis, Boura Panagiota, Chrisagis Dimitrios, Raptopoulou-Gigi Maria
Clinical Immunology Unit, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotle University, Konstantinoupoleos 49, 54642 Thessaloniki, Greece.
J Infect. 2007 Feb;54(2):192-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2006.04.001. Epub 2006 May 23.
Despite the treatment, a considerable proportion of brucellosis patients develop chronic disease, characterized by atypical clinical picture and/or relapses. Th1 cytokines are critical for the clearance of Brucella infection and diminished production of IL-2 in response to PHA, has been described in chronic brucellosis. In order to investigate the role of IL-2R alpha (CD25) in disease outcome, we evaluated the ex vivo and PHA-induced percentage of peripheral CD4+ T-lymphocytes expressing CD25 in 13 acute brucellosis patients (AB), 22 chronic brucellosis patients (CB), 11 "clinically cured" subjects and 15 healthy volunteers (controls). Simultaneously, CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes subsets were measured.
The ex vivo percentage of CD4+/CD25+ T-cells was significantly higher in AB patients compared to "clinically cured" subjects (p=0.005) and controls (p=0.006). By contrast, CD4+/CD25+ T-cells were significantly lower in CB patients (p=0.001). T-lymphocytes subsets did not significantly differ between the groups. After PHA stimulation, CD4+/CD25+ T-cells remained significantly lower in CB and specifically in the relapsing form of chronic disease compared to AB (p=0.044, 0.023). Additionally, CD8+ T-lymphocytes were found to be significantly increased in CB and mainly in the relapsing subgroup of CB patients compared to AB (p=0.044, 0.011).
Diminished percentage of peripheral CD4+ T-lymphocytes expressing IL-2R alpha is associated with chronic relapsing brucellosis.
尽管进行了治疗，但仍有相当一部分布鲁氏菌病患者发展为慢性病，其特征为非典型临床表现和/或复发。Th1细胞因子对于清除布鲁氏菌感染至关重要，并且在慢性布鲁氏菌病中已发现对PHA反应时IL-2产生减少。为了研究IL-2Rα（CD25）在疾病转归中的作用，我们评估了13例急性布鲁氏菌病患者（AB）、22例慢性布鲁氏菌病患者（CB）、11例“临床治愈”受试者和15名健康志愿者（对照组）外周血中表达CD25的CD4 + T淋巴细胞的体外及PHA诱导百分比。同时，检测了CD3 +、CD4 +和CD8 + T淋巴细胞亚群。
与“临床治愈”受试者（p = 0.005）和对照组（p = 0.006）相比，AB患者体外CD4 + / CD25 + T细胞百分比显著更高。相比之下，CB患者的CD4 + / CD25 + T细胞显著更低（p = 0.001）。各组间T淋巴细胞亚群无显著差异。PHA刺激后，与AB组相比，CB组尤其是慢性疾病复发形式的患者中，CD4 + / CD25 + T细胞仍显著更低（p = 0.044，0.023）。此外，与AB组相比，CB组尤其是CB患者复发亚组中，CD8 + T淋巴细胞显著增加（p = 0.044，0.011）。
外周血中表达IL-2Rα的CD4 + T淋巴细胞百分比降低与慢性复发性布鲁氏菌病相关。
