title: Gamma/delta T cells in patients with acute brucellosis.
abstract: We aimed to investigate the population of gamma/delta T (gamma/delta T) cells in patients with acute brucellosis. When the bacteria penetrate to the host, the innate immune response aims to prevent the attack by non-activated professional phagocytes. At that moment, macrophages trigger the other cells of the immune system. The cells that can respond immediately are natural killer and gamma/delta T cells. The study included 40 cases of acute brucellosis and 20 healthy volunteers. In this study, it was aimed to compare gamma/delta and alpha/beta (alpha/beta) receptors of the T cells at pre- and post treatment period of patients diagnosed as brucellosis, especially to evaluate the levels of gamma/delta T cells at monitoring of the disease, using flow cytometry. As a result, it was observed that gamma/delta T cells significantly increased in peripheral blood in patients with brucellosis compared with the healthy individuals (13.23 +/- 4.7 and 5.25 +/- 1.4, respectively (p = 0.0001)). gamma/delta T cells were significantly decreased after the brucellosis treatment (p < 0.01). The results of the present study indicate that considerable counts of gamma/delta T cells are involved in acute brucellosis cases. Our findings suggest that gamma/delta TCR bearing cell counts may be used as a supplementary marker for monitoring brucellosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University Hospital, 23119 Elazig, Turkey.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kilic
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Akbulut
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozden
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bulut
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000502:physiology; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D016692:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta