Chronic Intestinal Helminth Infections Are Associated with Immune Hyporesponsiveness and Induction of a Regulatory Network
Open Access
- 1 July 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Infection and Immunity
- Vol. 78 (7), 3160-3167
- https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.01228-09
Abstract
Helminth infections have been associated with protection against allergy and autoimmune diseases. We investigated the effects of chronic infections with Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura (measured twice over a 5-year period) on cytokine and antibody responses. We collected blood from 1,060 children aged 4 to 11 years living in a poor urban area of Brazil and measured Th1 (gamma interferon [IFN-γ]) and Th2 (interleukin-5 [IL-5] and IL-13) cytokines and the regulatory cytokine IL-10 in unstimulated and stimulated (with mitogen or A . lumbricoides antigens) cultures of peripheral blood leukocytes and levels of total IgE and anti- A . lumbricoides IgG4 and IgE in serum. Intestinal helminth infections were associated with an increased proportion of children producing IL-5 in response to A . lumbricoides and producing IL-10 spontaneously, especially among coinfected and chronically infected children. Helminth infections were associated with a generalized suppression of cytokine responses to mitogen. Levels of total IgE and anti- A . lumbricoides IgG4 and IgE were especially elevated in chronically infected children. In conclusion, intestinal helminth infections were associated with a typical Th2 immune response profile and with the induction of immune hyporesponsiveness that was associated with greater frequencies of the production of spontaneous IL-10.Keywords
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