Estudo da maturação de células dendríticas em indivíduos portadores de hanseníase

• Autor(a) principal: Braga, André Flores [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/113892
• topic: Hanseniase; Mycobacterium leprae; Antígenos bacterianos; Células dendríticas; Resposta imune; Expressão gênica; Antigenos

Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae and characterized by distinct clinical manifestations that reflect the immune response of the host. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a crucial role in immunity inducing the development of adaptive immune response, however the interaction of DCs with M. leprae is poorly understood. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the generation of specific immune response in leprosy patients focusing on the role of DCs against the M. leprae. DCs were differentiated in vitro from monocytes of lepromatous and tuberculoid patients, stimulated with sonicated antigen of M. leprae and analyzed for the expression of differentiation and maturation markers. The expression of mRNA to cytokines and receptors was assessed by qPCR. In parallel, monocytes from healthy controls were preincubated with the sonicated antigen of M. leprae, differentiated into DCs and evaluated in respect to the expression of surface markers. Differentiation of monocytes into DCs was similar between patients and healthy controls. After stimulation with sonicated antigen of M. leprae DCs from leprosy patients and healthy controls showed increased expression of CD40, CD80, CD86 and HLA-DR but this stimulation seems to be insufficient for complete activation of DCs since it was not observed an increase in the level of CD83. The analysis of gene expression also showed partial stimulation of DCs by M. leprae. The pre-incubation of monocytes with sonicated antigen of M. leprae resulted in impairment in the differentiation into DCs and maturation. Altogether our results suggest that the sonicated antigen of M. leprae impaired differentiation of monocytes into DCs and triggered an incomplete activation of DCs both in patients and healthy controls that may contribute among the mechanisms of escape used by M. leprae