The Th1 cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and Th2 cytokines interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 5 (IL-5) in 62 pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients (40 Warao indigenous patients [WP] and 22 Creole non-indigenous patients [CP]) and 24 healthy controls (12 Warao indigenous controls [WC] and 12 Creole non-indigenous controls [CC]) at 24 and 48 hours in response to purified protein derivative (PPD) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
We studied the influence of VDR promoter (Cdx-2 and A1012G), 3' untranslated region (Apa I, Bsm I, and Taq I) and start codon (Fok I) polymorphisms on 1,25(OH)(2)D(3)-modulated IL-12p40, IFN-gamma, IL-10, and IL-5 response to live Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its culture filtrate antigen (CFA) in 60 normal healthy subjects and 51 pulmonary tuberculosis patients.
A significant increase in interleukin (IL-2) expression (p < 0.001) and a significant decrease in IL-5 expression (p < 0.0001) were observed in patients with tuberculosis but no differences were seen in the expression of IL-4 and interferon gamma between the two study groups.
Furthermore, the stimulation of PBMC with crude Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen (H37Ra) and purified protein derivative (PPD) of M. tuberculosis revealed distinct IL-5 mRNA expression in all investigated CE patients, whereas in healthy controls IL-5 mRNA expression was very weak or totally absent.