अमूर्त

In-Vitro Cytokine Induction and Neutrophil Respiratory Burst Activity by Candida Isolates from HIV Seropositive Patients with Oropharyngeal Candidiasis

Mayuri Rani, Shukla Das, Vishnampettai Ganapathysubramanian Ramachandran, Sajad Ahmad Dar, Gajender Singh Ranga and Ashok Kumar Tripathi

The importance of host defense against candidiasis and role of cell mediated immunity in host defense has been the subject of many studies. Increased expression of virulence factors in candida isolates from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) has also been reported. We conducted an experiment to study the difference in T helper type 2 (Th2) and T helper type 1 (Th1) responses and neutrophil respiratory burst responses, of naive peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC’s) and neutrophils respectively, by using Candida isolates from study and control groups as stimulus. Thirty HIV seropositive patients with clinical evidence of OPC and thirty healthy volunteers were studied. IL-10 release was uniformly low at all concentrations of Candida albicans antigen isolated from healthy controls as compared to when C. albicans isolated from HIV seropositive patients was used as antigenic stimulus. Mean IFN-ᵧ concentration was highest when C.albicans, isolated from healthy carriers was used as antigenic stimulus for PBMCs. The observations highlight a significant IL-10 dominance, which may be an indicator of the fine tuning of host immune system towards a chronic progressive disease condition,indicating the pathogenic potential of select Candida strains.