title: Enhancement of the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction in patients with Chagas' heart disease.
abstract: Autologous mixed lymphocyte reactions (AMLR) were studied in 18 individuals chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi. These individuals were further classified into three clinical groups: the asymptomatic indeterminate form (n = 5); the mega disease form (n = 5); and the cardiomyopathy form (n = 8). While patients with mega disease showed a normal proliferative response when compared with normal controls, the indeterminate group showed a lowered response in sharp contrast with the heart disease group, which presented a very high proliferative response to autologous non-T cells. These abnormal AMLR represent direct evidence for an immunoregulatory malfunction which may be involved in the inflammatory cardiac damage in chronic Chagas' disease.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007959:Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi