Lessons of leprosy: the emergence of TH17 cytokines during type II reactions (ENL) is teaching us about T-cell plasticity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Leprosy was the first disease classified according to the thymus derived T-cell in the 1960s and the first disease classified by the cytokine profile as intact interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-2 (IL2) or TH1 (tuberculoid) and deficient IFN-γ and IL2 or TH2 (lepromatous), in the 1980s.

Objective

In the present study, we set out to explore the T helper 17 (TH17) lymphocyte subset, the hallmark of T-cell plasticity, in skin biopsies from patients with erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) who were treated with thalidomide.

Method

RNA was extracted from paraffin embedded tissue before and after thalidomide treatment of ENL and RT-PCR was performed.

Results

IL17A, the hallmark of TH17, was consistently seen before and after thalidomide treatment, confirming

SUBMITTER: Martiniuk F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3412264 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature