El-Ahwany Eman, Bauiomy Ibrahim Rabia, Nagy Faten, Zalat Rabab, Mahmoud Ola, Zada Suher
Department of Immunology, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Imbaba, Giza, Egypt.
Korean J Parasitol. 2012 Mar;50(1):29-35. doi: 10.3347/kjp.2012.50.1.29. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
The aim of the study is to characterize the phenotypes of CD4(+) CD25(+) T regulatory cells within the liver granulomas and association with both Foxp-3 gene expression and splenic cytokines. Naïve C57BL/6 mice were intravenously injected with multiple doses of the soluble egg antigen (SEA) 7 days before cercarial infection. The immunized and infected control groups were sacrificed 8 and 16 weeks post-infection (PI). Histopathology, parasitological parameters, splenic phenotypes for T regulatory cells, the FOXP-3 expression in hepatic granuloma using real-time PCR, and the associated splenic cytokines were studied. Histopathological examination of the liver revealed remarkable increase in degenerated ova within hepatic granuloma which decreased in diameter at weeks 8 and 16 PI (P<0.01). The percentage of T regulatory cells (CD4(+) CD25(+)) increased significantly (P<0.01) in the immunized group compared to the infected control at weeks 8 and 16 PI. The FOXP-3 expression in hepatic granulomas increased from 10 at week 8 to 30 fold at week 16 PI in the infected control group. However, its expression in the immunized group showed an increase from 30 at week 8 to 70 fold at week 16 PI. The splenic cytokine levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IFN-γ, IL-4, and TNF-α, showed significant decreases (P<0.05) compared to the infected control group. In conclusion, the magnitude and phenotype of the egg-induced effects on T helper responses were found to be controlled by a parallel response within the T regulatory population which provides protection in worm parasite-induced immunopathology.
本研究的目的是描述肝脏肉芽肿内CD4(+)CD25(+)调节性T细胞的表型及其与Foxp-3基因表达和脾脏细胞因子的关系。在尾蚴感染前7天，给未致敏的C57BL/6小鼠静脉注射多剂量可溶性虫卵抗原（SEA）。免疫和感染对照组在感染后（PI）8周和16周处死。研究了组织病理学、寄生虫学参数、调节性T细胞的脾脏表型、使用实时PCR检测肝脏肉芽肿中FOXP-3的表达以及相关的脾脏细胞因子。肝脏组织病理学检查显示，肝脏肉芽肿内变性虫卵显著增加，在感染后8周和16周直径减小（P<0.01）。在感染后8周和16周，免疫组中调节性T细胞（CD4(+)CD25(+)）的百分比与感染对照组相比显著增加（P<0.01）。在感染对照组中，肝脏肉芽肿中FOXP-3的表达从感染后8周的10倍增加到16周的30倍。然而，在免疫组中，其表达从感染后8周的30倍增加到16周的70倍。与感染对照组相比，脾脏中促炎细胞因子IFN-γ、IL-4和TNF-α的水平显著降低（P<0.05）。总之，发现虫卵诱导的对辅助性T细胞反应的影响程度和表型受调节性T细胞群体内的平行反应控制，该反应在蠕虫寄生虫诱导的免疫病理学中提供保护。
