Elevated interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 production by T cell lines from patients with Churg-Strauss syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate cytokine production patterns of T cell lines (TCL) from patients with Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS).


METHODS
Short-term polyclonal TCL were generated from peripheral blood of patients with CSS or Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) and healthy controls (HC). TCL were established in the presence of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and phytohemagglutinin and were phenotypically characterized by flow cytometry. Th1/ Th2 cytokine production by stimulated TCL (72 hours) was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.


RESULTS
TCL that represented the progeny of in vivo-activated T cells from CSS patients displayed a heterogeneous immunophenotype, with a predominance of CD4+ T cells when compared with WG TCL, which were predominantly CD8+. All CSS TCL shared the ability to produce large amounts of interferon-gamma (IFNgamma), IL-4, and IL-13 compared with HC (P = 0.014 for all 3). Production of IL-4 and IL-13 was higher in CSS TCL than in WG TCL (P = 0.014 for both). IL-5 production was up-regulated in WG TCL compared with CSS TCL (P = 0.014). Compared with HC, WG TCL showed increased production of IFNgamma (P = 0.021), IL-5 (P = 0.043), and IL-13 (P = 0.021).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that, while there is evidence for both a type 1 and a type 2 response in CSS, type 2 cytokine production pattern appears to predominate in this disease when compared with WG and HC.
University of Lübeck, Germany.
M
M
Kiene
E
E
Csernok
A
A
Müller
C
C
Metzler
A
A
Trabandt
W L
WL
Gross
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002460:Cell Line / Q000378:metabolism; D015267:Churg-Strauss Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D014890:Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015848:Interleukin-5 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*
D016207:Cytokines; D018793:Interleukin-13; D015848:Interleukin-5; D016753:Interleukin-10; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma