Published ahead of print on November 14, 2002, doi:10.1164/rccm.200207-728OC Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 167, Number 4, February 2003, 587-592 A more recent version of this article appeared on February 15, 2003
Submitted on July 22, 2002 Adaptive Immunity to Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzaePaul T King1*,1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 Department of Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 Department of Infectious Disease, Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ptking{at}netspace.net.au.
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) colonizes the upper respiratory tract of most healthy people and is also a major cause of infection in chronic obstructive lung disease. The immune response to this bacterium has not been well characterized. We tested the hypothesis that recurrent airway infection with NTHi may be associated with non-clearing adaptive immunity. Study subjects were healthy controls and patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis who had severe chronic infection with Haemophilus influenzae. We established that all subjects in both groups had detectable antibody to NTHi, suggesting that most normal people have developed an adaptive immune response. To characterize the nature of the immune response we measured antigen specific production of T helper cell cytokines and CD40 ligand by flow cytometry and immunoglobulin subclass levels in peripheral blood. We found that normal control subjects made a type 1 T helper cell response to NTHi with distinct CD40 ligand production. In contrast subjects with bronchiectasis had predominant production of type 2 T helper cell cytokines, decreased expression of CD40 ligand and different immunoglobulin-G subclass production. Therefore chronic infection with NTHi in bronchiectasis is associated with a change in adaptive immunity which may be important in the pathogenesis of bronchial infection. Key words: haemophilus influenzae, bronchiectasis, lymphocyte, immunoglobulin
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