Extracorporeal photochemotherapy restores Th1/Th2 imbalance in patients with early stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) has been shown to be a potent activator of peripheral blood macrophages because it causes a marked release of macrophage-dependent proinflammatory cytokines, and it is therefore currently considered to be a safe and non-toxic immunomodulatory treatment. On this basis we studied the function of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in eight patients with early stage (Ib) cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), before and 1 year after ECP, together with their clinical and histological responses. In particular we evaluated in vitro phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated proliferation and production of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) as well as lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of IL-12. Before treatment we observed that PBMC of patients produced significantly higher levels of IL-4 and lower levels of IFN-gamma and IL-12 than those of healthy control subjects. After 1 year of ECP, IL-4, IFN-gamma and IL-12 production no longer differed from that of control subjects. Moreover, we observed a good clinical result matched by histological response. Our data confirm that early-stage CTCL patients show a predominantly type-2 immune response that might be responsible for several immunological abnormalities found in this disease. We have demonstrated that ECP reverses the T-helper type 1/T-helper type 2 (Th1/Th2) imbalance and may therefore be considered an efficient biological response modifier.
Di Renzo
M
M
Department of Immunology, University of Siena, Italy.
Rubegni
P
P
De Aloe
G
G
Paulesu
L
L
Pasqui
A L
AL
Andreassi
L
L
Auteri
A
A
Fimiani
M
M
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016410:Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017893:Photopheresis; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology*
D018664:Interleukin-12; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma