CIRCULATING LYMPHOCYTE SUBPOPULATIONS AND ACTIVATED T-CELL AND B-CELLIN PATIENTS WITH CHAGASIC AND NON-CHAGASIC MYOCARDIOPATHY

Trypanosoma cruzi causes a profound immune depression in the infected host, and a small proportion of chagasic patients will develop a chron ic disease characterized by myocardiopathy. There is evidence suggesti ng that dilated non-chagasic cardiomyopathy may be mediated by an immu nological mechanism, In an attempt to distinguish abnormal immunoregul atory cell patterns in both dilated myocardiopathies, total and activa ted T and B lymphocyte subpopulations were measured by flow cytometry and double-labeling in whole blood samples from patients with dilated myocardiopathy, 10 with positive serological tests for T. cruzi and 9 with different non-chagasic cardiomyopathies. Several significant diff erences were found between both groups of patients and 13 sex- and age -matched apparently healthy controls. Chagasic patients besides showin g clear decrease in absolute numbers of CD3+/CD71+ and CD8+/CD25+ cell populations also had a significant increase in CD19+, CD10+, and CD19 +/HLA-DR+ cell subsets, as well as high helper/suppressor cell ratio, These findings suggest that concurrently with T cell diminution, which involved activated T lymphocytes displaying suppressor/cyotoxic immnu nophenotype, chronic chagasic patients with myocardiopathy showed elev ated numbers of total and activated B lymphocytes. Patients with dilat ed non-chagasic myocardiopathy had significantly increased numbers of activated T cells (CD3+/CD25+, CD8+/CD25+, and CD8+/HLA-DR+) and total and activated B lymphocytes (CD10+, CD19+, CD18+/HLA-DR+), These data support the notion that dilated myocardiopathies other than the chaga sics may be associated with immunological abnormalities. (C) 1997 Wile y Liss, Inc.