Doherty T M, Coffman R L
Immunobiology Section, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Exp Parasitol. 1996 Nov;84(2):124-35. doi: 10.1006/expr.1996.0098.
Leishmania major, the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans, causes either a local cutaneous lesion or a fatal, disseminated infection in different strains of mice. It has been well established that the BALB/c strain of mice is extremely susceptible to L. major infection, due to the preferential development of Th2 responses. It has also been shown, however, that these mice have the potential to develop protective Th1 responses under appropriate conditions. In this paper we confirm earlier reports that BALB/c mice are capable of developing immunity when challenged with low doses of L. major and show that this is dependent on the induction of a Th1 response which can be manipulated with anti-cytokine antibodies in the same way as more conventional experimental infections. Moreover, our data indicate that the development of immunity or susceptibility to L. major in the BALB/c mouse may reflect factors specific to infection such as persistance of the pathogen, infection of APC, or relative cytokine levels rather than simple antigen load, a finding which may be of general significance in infectious disease.
硕大利什曼原虫是人类皮肤利什曼病的病原体，在不同品系的小鼠中可引起局部皮肤病变或致命的播散性感染。众所周知，由于Th2反应的优先发展，BALB/c品系的小鼠对硕大利什曼原虫感染极为敏感。然而，也有研究表明，这些小鼠在适当条件下有产生保护性Th1反应的潜力。在本文中，我们证实了早期的报道，即BALB/c小鼠在受到低剂量硕大利什曼原虫攻击时能够产生免疫力，并表明这依赖于Th1反应的诱导，这种反应可以用抗细胞因子抗体进行调控，方式与更传统的实验性感染相同。此外，我们的数据表明，BALB/c小鼠对硕大利什曼原虫免疫或易感性的发展可能反映了感染特有的因素，如病原体的持续存在、抗原呈递细胞的感染或相对细胞因子水平，而不是简单的抗原负荷，这一发现可能在传染病中具有普遍意义。
