Table 2.
Antigen-specific cytokine profile of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from leprosy patients, household contacts and healthy controls
| Parameters | Groups | Subgroups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthy controls | Leprosy | HHC | Leprosy | |||
| HHC(PB) | HHC(MB) | L(PB) | L(MB) | |||
| Proportion of subjects with biomarker INDEX above the global median cut-off# | ||||||
| T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 46 (11/24) | 50 (05/10) | 44 (04/09) | 50 (03/06) | 67 (04/06) | 25 (01/04) |
| IL-4+ | 50 (12/24) | 47 (08/17) | 44 (04/09) | 33 (02/06) | 57 (04/07) | 40 (04/10) |
| IL-10+ | 47 (14/30) | 55 (06/11) | 64 (07/11) | 50 (05/10) | 57 (04/07) | 50 (02/04) |
| CD4+T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 42 (10/24) | 50 (05/10) | 44 (04/09) | 67 (04/06) | 50 (03/06) | 50 (02/04) |
| IL-4+ | 39 (09/23) | 69 (11/16)a | 33 (03/09) | 20 (01/05) | 57 (04/07) | 78 (07/09)e |
| IL-10+ | 47 (14/30) | 73 (08/11) | 55 (06/11) | 40 (04/10) | 86 (06/07) | 50 (02/04) |
| CD8+T-cells | ||||||
| IFN-γ+ | 39 (07/18) | 50 (03/06) | 33 (01/03) | 33 (02/06) | 100 (02/02)f | 25 (01/04) |
| IL-4+ | 78 (07/09) | 17 (01/06)a | 100 (01/01) | 75 (03/04) | 0 (00/03)d | 33 (01/03) |
| IL-10+ | 31 (05/16) | 30 (03/10) | 25 (01/04) | 29 (02/07) | 50 (03/06) | 0 (00/04)e |
#Data are expressed as proportion (%) of subjects with biomarker INDEX (M. leprae-stimulated/non-stimulated culture) above the Global Median cut-off, established for each 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. Comparative analysis of was carried out by Chi-square. Significant differences at P < 0.05, using the above-mentioned statistical methods is underscored by letters “a”, “d”, “e” and “f” in comparisons to Controls, HHC(MB), L(PB) and L(MB), respectively
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