ABSTRACT
Background: Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB], which is a worldwide clinical problem, is associated with high morbidity and mortality, as well as long-term survival of infected immunocompetent patients. In this study, the PPD-induced production of IL-12, IL-10, IFNgamma, and IL-4 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMC] from patients with MDR-TB were investigated and compared with cytokine production capabilities in newly diagnosed, treated cases
Materials and Methods: This study investigated the profiles of IFN-gamma, IL-12, IL-10, and IL-4 in response to a purified protein derivative [PPD] in peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMC] from 15 HIV negative patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB], 11 newly diagnosed, treated cases and compared those with 10 healthy negative tuberculin reactors as controls
Results: ELISA results showed that the following stimulation with PPD, IFNgamma production was significantly increased, whereas IL-10 was significantly reduced in MDR-TB patients compared with PPD negative controls. Production of IL-12 in MDR-TB patients showed elevation, induced by PPD stimulation of their PBMCs. However, MDR-TB patients were similar to healthy negative tuberculin controls in their IL-12 production and there was no statistically significant difference between them. IL-4 was detected to be in very low levels in three groups
Conclusion: In this study MDR-TB patients have no dysregulation in IL-12 or IL-10 production during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, and profiles are prone to Th1 cytokines