CHARACTERIZATION OF T-CELL CLONES FROM CHAGASIC PATIENTS - PREDOMINANCE OF CD8 SURFACE PHENOTYPE IN CLONES FROM PATIENTS WITH PATHOLOGY

Human Chagas' disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a ssociated with pathological processes whose mechanisms are not known. To address this question, T cell lines were developed from chronic cha gasic patients peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and cloned. T hese T cell clones (TCC) were analyzed phenotypically with monoclonal antibodies by the use of a fluorescence microscope. The surface phenot ype of the TCC from the asymptomatic patient were predominantly CD4 po sitive (86%). On the contrary, the surface phenotype CD8 was predomina nt in the TCC from the patients suffering from cardiomegaly with right bundle branch block (83%), bradycardia with megacolon (75%) and brady cardia (75%). Future studies will be developed in order to identify th e antigens eliciting these T cell subpopulations.