Extrathymic CD4+CD8+ lymphocytes in Chagas disease: possible relationship with an immunoendocrine imbalance

Double-positive (DP) CD4(+) CD8(+) T cells normally represent a thymic subpopulation that is developed in the thymus as a precursor of CD4(+) or CD8(+) single-positive T cells. Recent evidence has shown that DP cells with an activated phenotype can be tracked in secondary lymph organs. The detection of an activated DP population in the periphery, a population that expresses T cell receptors unselected during thymic negative selection in murine models of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and in humans with Chagas disease, raise new questions about the relevance of this population in the pathogenesis of this major parasitic disease and its possible link with immunoendocrine alterations.