TY - JOUR T1 - Lung and blood Th1 and Th17 responses against mycobacterial antigens in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p1833 AU - Mahyar Ostadkarampour AU - Anders Eklund AU - David Moller AU - Johan Grunewald AU - Jan Wahlström Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1833.abstract N2 - Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disorder characterized by granulomas most commonly affecting the lungs. The presence of mycobacterial antigens, and recently a specific protein, M. tuberculosis catalase-peroxidase (mKatG), in sarcoidosis tissue has been reported. Th1 cell responses against mKatG have been observed in sarcoidosis lung and peripheral blood cells. In the present study, IL-17 and IFNγ production were evaluated by ELISPOT after stimulation of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and peripheral blood cells with mKatG and M. tuberculosis PPD proteins. Two groups of sarcoidosis patients were compared: HLA-DR3 positive (good prognosis) versus HLA-DR3 negative (bad prognosis). We also did immunohistochemistry on bronchial biopsies for further characterization of cytokine expression. Both mKatG and PPD stimulation of BAL cells resulted in higher frequencies of cells producing IFNγ compared to IL-17. We did not detect any significant difference between BAL and blood regarding IL-17 secretion after stimulation with both mKatG and PPD, while significantly more BAL cells produced IFNγ in comparison to blood after stimulation with mKatG and PPD (p<0.05). The existence of IL-17+ cells in the granulomas also supports the role of IL-17 in sarcoidosis. The observed Th17 responses against mycobacterial antigens could contribute to the inflammation in sarcoidosis, although they generally occur at lower frequencies than corresponding Th1 responses. ER -