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: Abnormalities of immunosuppression in patients with hepatosplenic schistosomiasis mansoni.
    Author: Tweardy DJ, Osman GS, El Kholy A, Ellner JJ.
    Journal: Trans Assoc Am Physicians; 1983; 96():392-400. PubMed ID: 6238469.
    Abstract:
    The basis for development of hepatosplenic disease and attendant morbidity in only a minority of S. mansoni-infected individuals is uncertain but may relate to defective modulation of immunopathology. We explored the possibility that schistosomiasis mansoni with hepatosplenomegaly is characterized by failure of immunosuppressive mechanisms. Individuals (14-30 years of age) from an agricultural village in the Nile Delta were selected for study: 12 were uninfected, 9 had S. mansoni infection and hepatosplenomegaly (mean fecal egg excretion 1267 +/- 197 eggs/g), 32 were infected but lacked hepatosplenomegaly (1142 +/- 79 eggs/g). The ratio of OKT4 helper/OKT8 suppressor cells in PBMC was increased in the group with hepatosplenomegaly to 2.7 +/- 0.3 compared to a ratio of 1.7 +/- 0.1 (p less than 0.01) in uninfected subjects; in contrast, this ratio was reduced in infected subjects without hepatosplenomegaly to 1.4 +/- 0.1 (p less than 0.05). Schistosome antigen-induced [3H]thymidine incorporation in PBMC was similar in infected subjects, with hepatosplenomegaly (3329 +/- 738 cpm) and without (5837 +/- 1009 cpm, p greater than 0.01). However, depletion of suppressor adherent cells significantly increased the responses only in the group lacking organomegaly (14,028 +/- 1,683 cpm, p less than 0.001). Thus, among subjects with S. mansoni infection, those with hepatosplenomegaly are distinctive in their failure to develop an immunosuppressive balance of T lymphocyte subpopulations and in the absence of functional adherent suppressor cells.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]