Table 1.
Intracellular cytokine profile of T lymphocytes subpopulations CD4+ and CD8+ in peripheral blood from non-infected (NI), asymptomatic (AS), oligosymptomatic (OL) and HAM/TSP (HT) individuals after in vitro short-term stimulation.*
| Pan-leucocyte short-term stimulation in vitro (PMA index) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cell phenotype | NI | AS | OL | HT |
| CD4+ T cells | ||||
| INF-γ+ | 9·3(1·7–25·9) | 10·0(0·6–34·7) | 8·8(1·2–101·8) | 23·2(5·9–115·0)b |
| TNF-α+ | 14·4(1·7–53·7) | 14·9(0·6–95·1) | 28·9(2·1–74·9) | 37·0(18·3–115·8)a,b |
| IL-10+ | 1·5(0·2–3·0) | 1·0(0·2–4·8) | 1·5(0·2–7·1) | 1·0(0·2–7·5) |
| IFN-γ+/IL-10+ | 6·0(0·6–1·5.5) | 8·1(0·9–25·1) | 8·8(0·9–81·4) | 12·2(4·8–88·0)a,b |
| TNF-α+/IL-10+ | 13·6(0·7–36·7) | 7·4(0·5–36·9) | 23·6(1·6–153·4) | 35·6(8·0–135·9)a,b |
| CD8+ T cells | ||||
| INF-γ+ | 14·4(3·1–31·7) | 16·2(0·9–79·5) | 20·4(1·4–130·7) | 38·8(17·5–175·9)a,b |
| TNF-α+ | 6·8(0·5–45·5) | 11·8(0·4–45·6) | 17·8(0·7–56·6) | 23·3(5·5–60·2)a |
| IL-10+ | 0·4(0·1–3·9) | 0·6(0·1–4·9) | 1·1(0·2–5·1) | 0·8(0·2–1·1) |
| IFN-γ+/IL-10+ | 26·2(3·3–85·3) | 13·4(1·7–113·9) | 22·7(0·6–148·2) | 46·0(17·5–314·6)a,b |
| TNF-α+/IL-10+ | 17·6(1·6–23·3) | 14·8(1·1–98·2) | 21·0(0·3–66·2) | 26·4(5·1–201·3)a |
*
Data are expressed as phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) index, calculated as the ratio between the frequency of cytokine positive cells observed in the PMA-stimulated culture by the one detected in the control culture. Results are presented as mean PMA index of cytokine-expressing cells ± standard deviation. NI: n = 16; AS: carriers: n = 22; OL: n = 13; and HT: n = 12.
a,b
Statistically significant differences (P < 0·05) observed in the HT groups compared to the NI and AS groups, respectively.