ABSTRACT

Patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) have strong delayed-type hypersensitivity and in vitro proliferative responses to leishmanial antigens during active and cured diseases. To define the T cell response in patients with antroponotic CL infected with L. tropica is important to clarify the immunopathologic nature of the disease. T cell responses of acute and of already healed CL patients were defined using IFN-γ, IL-5, IL-4, IL-10 cytokine measurement assays. In this study, while Th2 cell response was found to be dominant in active CL cases, Th1 cell response was more distinctive in the group of already healed CL cases. Differentiation of cellular response in the different stages of infection might be helpful in understanding the prognosis of leishmaniasis.

Keywords: Leishmania, cytokine, T cell response