The spleen is an important site of T cell activation during human hepatosplenic schistosomiasis

ABSTRACT

We have undertaken a comparative immunephenotypic study of spleen cells from hepatosplenic patients (HS) and uninfected individuals (NOR) using flow cytometry. Our data did not show any significant differences in the mean percentage of T-cells and B-cells between the two groups. Analysis of activated T-cells demostrated that HS present an increased percentage of CD3+HLA-DR+ splenocytes in camparasion to NOR. Analysis of T-cell subsets demostrated a significant increase on the percentage of both activated CD4+T-splenocytes and CD8+cells in HS. We did not find any difference in the mean percentage of CD28+T-cells. Analysis of the B-cell compartament did not show any difference on the percentage of B1-splenocytes. However, the spleen seems to be an important reservoir/source for B1 lymphocytes during hepatosplenic disease, since after splenectomy we found a decrease on the percentage of circulating B1-lyphocytes. We observed an increase on the percentage of CD2+CD3-lymphocytes in the spleen of HS suggesting that the loss of CD3 by activated T-cells or the expansion of NK-cells might play a role in the development/maintenance of splenomegaly.