Abstract

LASSO, Paola et al. Dendritic cells and natural regulatory T lymphocytes in chronic chagasic patients. Infect. [online]. 2009, vol.13, n.4, pp.246-253. ISSN 0123-9392.

Given the chronicity and persistence of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi in the Chagas disease victims, the homeostatic control of immune response to prevent tissue damage and limit the duration of the inflammatory process involves cells with regulatory potential as dendritic cells (DC) and regulatory T cells. For this reason, the objective of this study is to evaluate the proportion of total DC, myeloid and plasmacytoid DC subpopulations and natural regulatory T cells in chronic chagasic patients and healthy control subjects. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 18 chronic chagasic patients and 16 healthy control subjects were staining to myeloid DC Lin- HLA-DR+ CD11c+, plasmacytoid DC Lin-, HLA-DR+, CD123+ and natural regulatory T lymphocytes CD3+ CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ CD127low. Cellular proportions were calculated using the percentage obtained by flow cytometry. It was found that plasmacytoid CD proportion was lower than myeloid CD in both, chronic chagasic patients and healthy control subjects, without significant differences between the two groups. On the contrary, it was found that the proportion of natural regulatory T cells was significantly higher in chronic chagasic patients than in healthy control subjects upon comparing the two. These results suggest that the higher proportion of natural regulatory T cells in chronic chagasic patients might contribute to the disease pathogenesis.

Keywords : Chagas disease; Trypanosoma cruzi; dendritic cells.

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