title: A role for interleukin-5 in promoting increased immunoglobulin M at the site of disease in leprosy.
abstract: Leprosy is an infectious disease in which the clinical manifestations correlate with the type of immune response mounted to the pathogen, Mycobacterium leprae. To investigate which biological pathways or gene sets are over-represented in lepromatous (L-Lep) versus tuberculoid (T-Lep) patients that might be relevant in disease pathogenesis, we compared the gene expression profiles of L-lep versus T-lep skin lesions using knowledge-guided bioinformatic analysis, incorporating data on likely biological functions, including gene ontology information and regulatory data. Analysis of probe sets comparatively increased in expression in L-lep versus T-lep revealed multiple pathways and functional groups involving B-cell genes (P values all < 0.005) relevant to the dataset. Further pathways analysis of B-cell genes comparatively increased in expression in L-lep versus T-lep lesions revealed a potential network linking the expression of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and interleukin-5 (IL-5). Analysis of the leprosy lesions by immunohistology indicated that there was approximately 8% more IgM-positive cells in L-lep lesions than in T-lep lesions. Furthermore, IL-5 synergized in vitro with M. leprae to enhance total IgM secretion from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This pathways analysis of leprosy in combination with our in vitro studies implicates a role for IL-5 in the increased IgM at the site of disease in leprosy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Maria T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ochoa
authors.forename: Rosane
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Teles
authors.forename: Blake E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zaghi
authors.forename: Huiying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Euzenir N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Sarno
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Rea
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Modlin
authors.forename: Delphine J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D001706:Biopsy; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015848:Interleukin-5 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D007918:Leprosy / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D053668:Syndecan-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D015848:Interleukin-5; D053668:Syndecan-1