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Infection and Immunity, March 2002, p. 1168-1174, Vol. 70, No. 3
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.3.1168-1174.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Increased Activation and Oligoclonality of Peripheral CD8⁺ T Cells in the Chronic Human Helminth Infection Alveolar Echinococcosis

Section of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany

Received 17 May 2001/ Returned for modification 31 July 2001/ Accepted 24 October 2001

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in humans is a chronic disease characterized by slowly expanding liver lesions. Cellular immunity restricts the spreading of the extracellular pathogen, but functional contributions of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells are not defined. Here we studied ex vivo the phenotype and function of circulating T-cell subsets in AE patients by means of flow cytometry, T-cell receptor spectratyping, and lymphocyte proliferation. AE patients with parasitic lesions displayed a significant increase of activation of predominantly CD8⁺ T cells compared to healthy controls and AE patients without lesions. In vitro, proliferative T-cell responses to polyclonal stimulation with recall antigens and Echinococcus multilocularis vesicular fluid antigen were sustained during chronic persisting infection in all AE patients. Only in AE patients with parasitic lesions did T-cell receptor spectratyping reveal increased oligoclonality of CD8⁺ but not CD4⁺ T cells, suggesting a persistent antigenic drive for CD8⁺ T cells with subsequent proliferation of selected clonotypes. Thus, our data provide strong evidence for an active role of CD8⁺ T cells in AE.

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• Manfras, B. J., Reuter, S., Wendland, T., Boehm, B. O., Kern, P. (2004). Impeded Th1 CD4 memory T cell generation in chronic-persisting liver infection with Echinococcus multilocularis. Int Immunol 16: 43-50 [Abstract] [Full Text]