Defining protective responses to pathogens: cytokine profiles in leprosy lesions

• DOI: 10.1126/science.254.5029.277
• Publication Date: 2021-06-24T03:20:45Z
• Authors: M Yamamura; K Uyemura; RJ Deans; K Weinberg; TH Rea; BR Bloom; RL Modlin
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Base Sequence; Molecular Sequence Data; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Immunity, Innate; Interleukin-10; 3. Good health; Interferon-gamma; 03 medical and health sciences; Leprosy; Cytokines; Humans; Interleukin-2; Interleukin-4; RNA, Messenger; Interleukin-5; Skin

The immunological mechanisms required to engender resistance have been defined in few infectious diseases of man, and the role of specific cytokines is unclear. Leprosy presents clinically as a spectrum in which resistance correlates with cell-mediated immunity to the pathogen. To assess in situ cytokine patterns, messenger RNA extracted from leprosy skin biopsy specimens was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction with 14 cytokine-specific primers. In lesions of the resistant form of the disease, messenger RNAs coding for interleukin-2 and interferon-gamma were most evident. In contrast, messenger RNAs for interleukin-4, interleukin-5, and interleukin-10 predominated in the multibacillary form. Thus, resistance and susceptibility were correlated with distinct patterns of cytokine production.