Altered immune responses in patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lymphocyte transformation responses and cytokine secretion of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC).

Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) mitogen and Candida albicans (C. albicans) antigen proliferation assays were performed by culturing PBMCs in RPMI 1640. The levels of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-10, IL-17 and interferon (IFN)-γ present in the supernatant of cultures were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

The results showed that most patients (92.3%) had a low proliferative response to C. albicans antigens and PHA. PBMCs from CMC patients produced lower levels of T (h)-1 cytokines IL-2 (78.5±59.8 pg/mL) and IFN-γ (115.1±43.3 pg/mL) in response to Candida antigens when compared to controls (Il-2: 177±103.6 pg/mL; IFN-γ: 330.3±21.6 pg/mL) (P<0.05). Conversely, we observed a partial enhancement of IL-10 in the patients (213.7±86.1 pg/mL). Production of IL-17 indicated no significant differences between patients and controls when stimulated by Candida antigens (21.5±8.6 pg/mL versus 32.4±12.2 pg/mL) and PHA (27.7±11.5 pg/mL versus 36.2±9.1 pg/mL), respectively.

These findings suggest that Candida antigens trigger a Th2 instead of Th1 cytokine response in patients with CMC. For better understanding, further studies require on a larger number of patients into the future.