Cellular immune host response in acute cutaneous leishmaniasis

ABSTRACT

To evaluate cellular immune host response in various patterns of acute cutaneous leishmaniasis. It was a cross-sectional and comparative study. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [AFIP] and Military Hospital [MH], Rawalpindi from 1996 to 1999. Forty biopsies of active skin lesions after processing were studied for various immunophenotype cells by using monoclonal antibodies. Total as well as differential T cell counts were recorded in acute single, acute multiple and sporotrichoid lesions and in normal skin tissues. Non parametric Kruskal-Wallis Test for one way ANOVA was used to compare cell counts in these groups and p-value <0.05 was considered significant. No significant difference was seen in the histopathology, type of infiltrate and the ratio between the immune competent cells in acute single or multiple lesions. The results of analysis of total cell count, CD3+ cells and CD57+ [NK] cells were statistically different [p=<0.05 to p=<0.001] between acute forms of the disease and normal tissue but no difference was seen when acute forms were compared with each other. However, CD4+, CD8+ and CD19+[Plasma cells] counts difference was significant [p=<0.05 to p=<0.01], when sporotrichoid lesions were compared with other acute lesions [single and multiple]. The sporotrichoid variant of cutaneous leishmaniasis may be due to a different parasite species, which provokes a different cellular immune response