Vats Vikas, Agrawal Tanvi, Salhan Sudha, Mittal Aruna
Institute of Pathology, Safdarjung Hospital Campus, New Delhi, India.
FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2007 Mar;49(2):280-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-695X.2006.00196.x.
Chlamydia trachomatis infection is followed by the development of antigen-specific cell-mediated immunity, which is detectable as a positive lymphocyte proliferation response to the chlamydial major outer membrane protein (MOMP) antigen. To date, however, there have been no studies on the mucosal immune responses to chlamydial antigens. This study aimed to study the primary and secondary immune responses of cervical lymphocytes in response to the chlamydial antigen. Median proliferative responses were found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher in patients with chlamydial infections than in controls. The chlamydial MOMP induced significantly higher IL-6 and IL-10 and lower interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) secretion in cervical lymphocytes of Chlamydia-positive women, resulting in a T helper 2 response. On stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from Chlamydia-positive women with the chlamydial antigen, the median levels of IL-10, IL-12 and IFN-gamma were higher than in controls, but the differences were not significant. Our study suggests that the mucosal immune responses towards Chlamydia trachomatis are different from those of PBMCs and are more helpful in understanding the cytokine responses in the female genital tract during chlamydial infection.
沙眼衣原体感染后会产生抗原特异性细胞介导免疫，可通过对衣原体主要外膜蛋白（MOMP）抗原的淋巴细胞增殖反应呈阳性来检测。然而，迄今为止，尚未有关于对衣原体抗原的黏膜免疫反应的研究。本研究旨在探讨宫颈淋巴细胞对衣原体抗原的初次和二次免疫反应。结果发现，衣原体感染患者的中位增殖反应显著高于对照组（P<0.05）。衣原体MOMP在衣原体阳性女性的宫颈淋巴细胞中诱导出显著更高的IL-6和IL-10分泌以及更低的干扰素-γ（IFN-γ）分泌，从而导致辅助性T细胞2型反应。用衣原体抗原刺激从衣原体阳性女性获得的外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）后，IL-10、IL-12和IFN-γ的中位水平高于对照组，但差异不显著。我们的研究表明，对沙眼衣原体的黏膜免疫反应与PBMC的反应不同，且更有助于理解衣原体感染期间女性生殖道中的细胞因子反应。
