Journal
TUBERCULOSIS
Volume 91, Issue 3, Pages 224-230Publisher
CHURCHILL LIVINGSTONE
DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2010.12.005
Keywords
Tuberculosis; Pleuritis; CD4+; T cells; Immunity; Polyfunctional
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Funding
- NIH [AI-73217, AI-70022, AI-36219, HL-51636]
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Pleural tuberculosis (TB) is a common presentation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection, and despite spontaneous resolution remains a strong risk factor for reactivation pulmonary TB in a majority of individuals. This study was undertaken to further understand the characteristics of immune cells at sites of pleural TB. A significant shift toward memory CD4+ T cells with an effector phenotype and away from naive CD4+ T cells in pleural fluid as compared to blood mononuclear cells was found. These data suggest that effector T cells are capable of migrating to sites of active TB infection and/or the differentiation to effector phenotype T cells in situ is highly amplified. Using multi-parameter flow cytometry analysis, a significant portion of MTB-specific CD4+ T cells in the pleural space were polyfunctional demonstrating two, three or four simultaneous functions including IFN-gamma, IL-2, TNF-alpha, and or MIP-1 alpha production. A greater proportion of these polyfunctional cells were of effector memory rather than central memory phenotype. The role of these polyfunctional MTB-specific CD4+ T cells at sites of pleural TB requires further study. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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