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: Pulmonary involvement in patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy: increased soluble IL-2 receptors in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.
    Author: Sugimoto M, Nakashima H, Matsumoto M, Uyama E, Ando M, Araki S.
    Journal: Am Rev Respir Dis; 1989 Jun; 139(6):1329-35. PubMed ID: 2786358.
    Abstract:
    A chronic spastic myelopathy associated with HTLV-I infection (HTLV-I-associated myelopathy: HAM) shows subclinical pulmonary involvement with bronchoalveolar T lymphocytosis. In the present study, we investigated 18 patients with HAM: five HTLV-I carriers without myelopathy and 13 normal control subjects seronegative for HTLV-I to determine if soluble IL-2 receptors (IL-2R), a marker of lymphocyte activation, were increased in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from HAM patients. Serum IL-2R levels were significantly increased in patients with HAM as compared to normal control subjects (HAM versus control subjects: 633 +/- 395 versus 278 +/- 53 U/ml, p less than 0.01). There was also an increase of serum IL-2R levels in one of five HTLV-I carriers. BAL levels of soluble IL-2R were low but detectable in four normal control subjects and in one HTLV-I carrier. In HAM patients, however, soluble IL-2R levels in BAL fluid were remarkably elevated (173 +/- 110 U/mg of albumin) and were nearly 13 times higher on average than in serum (BAL fluid/serum ratio: 13 +/- 10). In patients with HAM, lavage IL-2R levels correlated well with the number of T lymphocytes (CD3+ cells) and CD4+ cells in BAL fluid (p less than 0.01). Furthermore, BAL lymphocytes obtained from HAM patients synthesized DNA spontaneously when cultured in vitro. These results suggest that, in HAM, T lymphocytes increased in the lung are activated locally to produce soluble IL-2R. Based on the results of this study, we conclude that immunologic mechanism(s) may play an important role in the development of pulmonary lesions in HAM patients.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]