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Evaluation of T cell responses in healing and nonhealing leishmaniasis reveals differences in T helper cell polarization ex vivo and in vitro
Author(s) -
CHOI B.S.,
KROPF P.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3024.2009.01094.x
Subject(s) - ex vivo , immunology , in vivo , biology , t cell , t helper cell , immune system , in vitro , effector , cell , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , genetics
SUMMARY Experimental leishmaniasis is widely used to study the effector functions of T helper cell subsets in vivo . Healing and nonhealing Leishmania major infections have been correlated with T helper 1 and T helper 2 responses, respectively. In the present study, we determined T cell effector functions ex vivo , without any further restimulation and compared them to those obtained following antigen‐specific restimulation in vitro . Our results show that T helper cell responses are significantly less polarized when determined ex vivo as compared to those measured after restimulation in vitro . Moreover, the differences in CD4 + T cell proliferation observed between healer and nonhealer strains of mice differed ex vivo and in vitro . Our results suggest that determination of both ex vivo as well as in vitro T cell responses is crucial to characterize immune responses during experimental leishmaniasis.