These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: High levels of intracellular IL-4 are expressed in circulating apoptotic T cells in patients with tuberculosis and in community controls.
    Author: Veenstra H, Baumann R, Lukey PT, Beyers N, van Helden PD, Walzl G.
    Journal: Tuberculosis (Edinb); 2008 Jan; 88(1):21-30. PubMed ID: 17977794.
    Abstract:
    Data concerning T helper cell phenotypes in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection remain controversial. T lymphocyte intracellular interleukin-4 production in response to CD3 stimulation was determined by flow cytometry in 21 TB patients and 14 community controls. In supplementary experiments the association of interleukin-4 expression with apoptosis was investigated. A low percentage of CD4 T cells in both patients and controls expressed high levels of interleukin-4 (IL-4(high)). A larger subset of both CD4 and CD8 T cells of all subjects expressed low levels of intracellular IL-4 (IL-4(low)). Stimulated and unstimulated cells expressed IL-4(low) and IL-4(high). IL-4(low) percentages were lower in TB patients at diagnosis compared to controls while IL-4(high) percentages were higher in patients. Most IL-4(high) cells co-expressed active caspase-3, a marker for apoptosis. This co-expression was also shown in experimentally induced apoptotic Jurkat cells and peripheral blood neutrophils and monocytes. IL-4 levels may therefore not necessarily indicate a skewed Th cell phenotype, as our data suggest that IL-4 production by CD4 and CD8 T cells can occur constitutively in healthy controls with latent TB infection and in TB patients. Cellular IL-4 production may represent a normal cellular growth factor mechanism which is disturbed at the onset of apoptosis.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]