Haregewoin A, Godal T, Mustafa A S, Belehu A, Yemaneberhan T
Nature. 1983 May 26;303(5915):342-4. doi: 10.1038/303342a0.
In some subjects the infective agent of leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, causes disseminated (lepromatous) disease. Such subjects have a major role in the transmission of the disease and show deficient T-cell responses both in vivo and in vitro to M. leprae, but not to other antigens. Numerous studies have recently shown that T cells with functional capabilities after initial triggering with antigen can be maintained in a state of continuous proliferation in vitro when cultured in medium containing interleukin 2 (IL-2). Here we have studied the effect of IL-2 rich T-cell conditioned medium on lepromatous peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Our results show that although lepromatous T cells fail to produce IL-2 after exposure to M. leprae they can respond by proliferation to M. leprae in the presence of T-cell conditioned medium, suggesting that the unresponsiveness in lepromatous leprosy results from a deficiency in the production of IL-2 or related factors and not a lack of M. leprae-reactive T cells.
在一些受试者中，麻风病的病原体麻风分枝杆菌会引发播散性（瘤型）疾病。这类受试者在疾病传播中起主要作用，并且在体内和体外对麻风分枝杆菌均表现出T细胞反应缺陷，但对其他抗原则无此现象。最近大量研究表明，抗原初次激发后具有功能的T细胞，在含有白细胞介素2（IL-2）的培养基中体外培养时，可维持在持续增殖状态。在此，我们研究了富含IL-2的T细胞条件培养基对瘤型外周血单个核细胞的影响。我们的结果显示，尽管瘤型T细胞在接触麻风分枝杆菌后不能产生IL-2，但在T细胞条件培养基存在的情况下，它们可通过增殖对麻风分枝杆菌作出反应，这表明瘤型麻风的无反应性是由于IL-2或相关因子产生不足，而非缺乏对麻风分枝杆菌有反应的T细胞。
