Levels Serum Soluble CD25 , CD8 , and CD4 In Patients with Leprosy

Suh, Moo Kyu; Chung, Sang Lip; Kim, Jung Chul; Kim, Moon Kyu

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Generalized immune activation occurs early in the course of many infectious disease. Laboratory investigations have shown that immune activation can be quantified by the measurement of soluble immune activation products in serum. Soluble CD25, CD8, and CD4 are major immune activation products. Soluble CD8 and CD4 are indices of CD8+ T cell and CD4+T cell activity, respectively.
OBJECTIVE
We estimated the concentrations of these molecules in patients with leprosy.
METHODS
The study population consisted of 31 patients with tuberculoid leprosy and 71 patients with lepromatous leprosy(32 cases of M. leprae negative patients and 39 cases of M. leprae positive patients). Serum samples and clinical and laboratory data were collected form each patient and control. The levels of serum soluble CD25, CD8, and CD4 were measured by sandwich enzyme immunoassay.
RESULTS
The levels of serum soluble CD25 were significantly raised in leprosy patients as compared to control and did not vary signficantly between tuberculoid and lepromatous leprosy. The soluble CD8 levels in the serum of patients with leprosy did not differ from the levels of the control. The levels of serum soluble CD4 were significantly decreased in the patients with lepromatous leprosy, but not in the patients with tuberculoid leprosy. However, there was no significant correlation between CD25, CD8, and cD4 and bacterial indices in patients with lepromatous leprosy.
CONCLUSIONs
There data suggest that non-specific immune activation occurs the spectrum in leprosy, while CD4+ T cell activity is significantly decreased in patients with lepromatous leprosy.