Defining Protective Responses to Pathogens: Cytokine Profiles in Leprosy Lesions

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 254; no. 5029; pp. 277 - 279
• Main Authors: Yamamura, Masahiro, Uyemura, Koichi, Deans, Robert J., Weinberg, Kenneth, Rea, Thomas H., Bloom, Barry R., Modlin, Robert L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for the Advancement of Science 11.10.1991; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Base Sequence; Complementary DNA; Cytokines; Cytokines - genetics; Cytokines - physiology; Genetics; Humans; Immune response; Immunity (Disease); Immunity, Innate; Infections; Infectious diseases; Interferon-gamma - physiology; Interleukin-10 - physiology; Interleukin-2 - physiology; Interleukin-4 - physiology; Interleukin-5 - physiology; Leprosy; Leprosy - immunology; Lesions; Medical research; Messenger RNA; Molecular Sequence Data; Mycobacterium leprae; Pathogens; Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - genetics; Skin - immunology; T lymphocytes
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1925582

The immunological mechanisms required to engender resistance have been defined in few infectious diseases of man, and the role of specific cytokines is unclear. Leprosy presents clinically as a spectrmn in which resistance correlates with cell-mediated immunity to the pathogen. To assess in sim cytokine patterns, messenger RNA extracted from leprosy skin biopsy specimens was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction with 14 cytokine-specific primers. In lesions of the resistant form of the disease, messenger RNAs coding for interleukin-2 and interferon-γ were most evident. In contrast, messenger RNAs for interleukin-4, interleukin-5, and interleukin-10 predominated in the multibacillary form. Thus, resistance and susceptibility were correlated with distinct patterns of cytokine production.