Production of the lymphokine soluble immune response suppressor (SIRS) during chronic experimental schistosomiasis...

Chronic schistosomiasis mansoni is a helminthic infection characterized by cell-mediated anti-egg granulomatous reactions and a variety of associated immunoregulatory phenomena. Soluble immune response suppressor (SIRS) is a lymphokine produced by activated suppressor T lymphocytes in various experimental settings. This report demonstrates the presence of SIRS in the sera of mice with chronic schistosomiasis mansoni (at least 20 wk of infection), but not in the sera of mice with earlier infections. Also, cultures of isolated, intact, hepatic, egg-focused granulomas from chronically infected mice released detectable levels of SIRS. These are the immunomodulated lesions characteristic of this infection. Large, intense, unmodulated granulomas obtained from acutely infected mice did not release SIRS. There is, therefore, a strong association between the presence of SIRS in the serum, the production of SIRS by intact lesions, and the chronic, immunomodulated stage of schistosomiasis mansoni.