Table 1.
Cytokine profile amongst peripheral blood mononuclear cells from leprosy patients, household contacts and healthy controls upon in vitro culture
| Parameters | Groups | Subgroups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy Controls | Leprosy | HHC | Leprosy | |||
| HHC(PB) | HHC(MB) | L(PB) | L(MB) | |||
| Mycobacterium leprae-stimulated /Non-stimulated Culture INDEX* | ||||||
| T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 1.4 ± 0.2 | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 1.3 ± 0.2 | 1.3 ± 0.4 | 1.3 ± 0.2 | 0.8 ± 0.2 |
| IL-4+ | 1.3 ± 0.2 | 1.0 ± 0.2 | 1.6 ± 0.6 | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 1.0 ± 0.2 | 1.0 ± 0.2 |
| IL-10+ | 2.3 ± 0.7 | 2.3 ± 0.8 | 2.1 ± 0.7 | 3.6 ± 2.0 | 2.2 ± 0.9 | 2.5 ± 1.6 |
| CD4+T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 1.3 ± 0.2 | 1.0 ± 0.2 | 1.3 ± 0.3 | 1.5 ± 0.3 | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 0.9 ± 0.3 |
| IL-4+ | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 1.2 ± 0.3 | 0.7 ± 0.1 | 0.7 ± 0.1 | 0.9 ± 0.2 | 1.4 ± 0.5 |
| IL-10+ | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 1.5 ± 0.5 | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 1.1 ± 0.3 | 1.2 ± 0.2 | 1.9 ± 1.4 |
| CD8+T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 1.2 ± 0.2 | 0.9 ± 0.2 | 1.0 ± 0.2 | 1.2 ± 0.4 | 1.3 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.2 |
| IL-4+ | 0.8 ± 0.1 | 0.7 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.0 | 1.0 ± 0.2 | 0.6 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.2 |
| IL-10+ | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 1.1 ± 0.1 | 1.1 ± 0.1 | 0.9 ± 0.2 | 1.2 ± 0.1 | 0.8 ± 0.1e |
HHC(PB) household contacts of paucibacillary leprosy patients, HHC(MB) household contacts of multibacillary leprosy patients, L(PB) paucibacillary leprosy patients, L(MB) multibacillary leprosy patients
*Data are expressed as mean INDEX (‰) ± standard error of cytokine+ cells (IFN-γ, IL-4 and IL-10) amongst gated lymphocyte subsets upon in vitro culture in the presence/absence of M. leprae antigen, including: T-cells, CD4+ T-cells and CD8+ T-cells. Multiple comparisons amongst groups were carried out by ANOVA test followed by Tuckey post-test for sequential pairwise comparisons. Additionally, Student t test were also employed for pairwise comparative analysis. Significant differences at P < 0.05, using the above-mentioned statistical methods is underscored by the letter “e” for comparison with L(PB)