No abstract

Mycetoma is a chronic, granulomatous, progressive inflammatory disease; it usually involves the subcutaneous tissue after a traumatic inoculation of the causative organism. Mycetoma may be caused by true fungi or bacteria (actinomycetes) and hence it is classified as eumycetoma and actinomycetoma respectively. Mycetoma immunological studies have fre- quently addressed humoral aspects. Few reports have addressed the role of cellular immunity in humans, for this reason, we were interested in finding differences in the circulating population of mononuclear cells or in the ability of this pathology to produce cytokines after mitogen stimulation. In this study, immunophenotyping of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMN) and intracellular detection by flow cytometry of IL-2, IFNγ and IL-4 in patients with actino- mycetoma by Nocardia brasiliensis and Actino- madura madurae were evaluated. We investi- gated the expression of T-cells (CD3, CD4 and CD8), B-cells (CD19), monocytes (CD14), and natural killer cells (CD16 and CD56) markers. CD69 and CD25 were used to monitor individual activated cell subsets. The percentage values of the cells were calculated. Our results indicated that PBMC from patients with mycetoma show similar percentages of circulating cells when compared with healthy donors. The expression of IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) by mitogen activation was similar in these two groups. These findings suggest that circulating lymphocytes are not affected by this pathology. Intracellular IL-4 was increased only in patients with mycetoma by N. brasiliensis, suggesting a TH2 profile; this ob- servation has been reported by other authors