Medical Research Unit Zacatecas, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Arch Med Res. 2012 May;43(4):324-8. doi: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2012.06.005. Epub 2012 Jun 15.
Defensins are low molecular weight antimicrobial and immunomodulatory peptides. Their participation against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) infection has been scarcely studied.
We describe the kinetics of murine β-defensin 2 (mBD-2) expression by quantitative real-time PCR and cellular location by immunohistochemistry in murine models of progressive pulmonary tuberculosis and latent infection.
During progressive disease, mBD2 gene expression raised its peak at 14 days postinfection, whereas in latent infection it was at 90 days. In both models, mBD-2 immunostaining was essentially located in cells with dendritic morphology located near mediastinal lymph nodes, which correlated with the previous reported highest expression of cell-mediated protected immunity in both models.
These results suggest that mBD-2 may play a role in the control of bacilli growth by contributing to establish a Th1 response, being a link between innate and adaptative immunity. These data may be used for the development of new vaccine approaches.
防御素是一种低分子量的抗菌和免疫调节肽。它们在针对结核分枝杆菌（MTb）感染中的作用鲜有研究。
我们通过定量实时 PCR 描述了鼠β防御素 2（mBD-2）在进展性肺结核和潜伏性感染的鼠模型中的表达动力学，并通过免疫组织化学描述了其细胞定位。
在进行性疾病中，mBD2 基因表达在感染后 14 天达到峰值，而在潜伏性感染中则在 90 天达到峰值。在这两种模型中，mBD-2 的免疫染色主要位于位于纵隔淋巴结附近具有树突状形态的细胞中，这与之前报道的这两种模型中细胞介导的保护性免疫的最高表达相一致。
这些结果表明，mBD-2 可能通过促进 Th1 反应来发挥控制杆菌生长的作用，是先天免疫和适应性免疫之间的联系。这些数据可用于开发新的疫苗方法。
