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Published on: April 8, 2016
Mitogen induced proliferation and cytokine production by lymphocytes from leprosy patients
S R Shinde1, S V Chiplunkar, R Butlin
1Immunology Division, Tata Memorial Centre, Bombay, India.
Insights
Leprosy patients
Area of Science:
- Immunology and infectious diseases, focusing on leprosy.
Background:
- Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, affects immune responses.
- Understanding immune cell activity is crucial for assessing disease status.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the mitogen responses in leprosy patients with different clinical statuses.
- To compare immune cell proliferation and cytokine production (Interleukin-2, Interferon-gamma) between patient groups and healthy donors.
Main Methods:
- Assessed mitogen-induced proliferation of lymphocytes.
- Measured Interleukin-2 and Interferon-gamma cytokine production.
- Compared responses across untreated, multidrug therapy (MDT)-non-responsive LL, MDT-responsive LL, and TT leprosy patient groups, and healthy donors.
Main Results:
- Untreated and MDT-non-responsive LL patients showed similar mitogen responses to healthy donors.
- TT and MDT-responsive LL patients exhibited significantly higher mitogen responses than healthy donors.
- Increased mitogenic responses correlated with improved clinical status in leprosy patients.
Conclusions:
- Mitogen responses, including proliferation and cytokine production, vary with leprosy clinical status.
- Elevated mitogenic responses may indicate a positive immune response and clinical improvement in leprosy.
- These findings highlight the potential of immune response assessment in leprosy management.
Abstract:
In this paper we have assessed the mitogen responses of leprosy patients and healthy donors in terms of proliferation and cytokine production (Interleukin 2 and Interferon gamma). The patients investigated included untreated and multidrug therapy non-responsive LL patients and MDT responsive LL and TT patients. The mitogen responses of untreated and multidrug therapy non responsive LL patients were not significantly different from those of the healthy donors. It was interesting to note that TT and multidrug therapy responsive LL patients showed higher responses to mitogens than healthy donors as assessed by all three parameters. The results suggest a correlation of increased mitogenic responses with improvement in clinical status in leprosy.
