Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a worldwide public health problem. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infects approximately one-third of the population. Nearly 8 million active TB cases and 2 million deaths from TB are recorded each year. Majority of Mtb infected individuals control the infection by mounting cell-mediated immune responses but we don't know why only 5–10% of infected cases develop active TB. Because of CD14, receptors for Fc fragment of IgG (FcγR) and complement (CR) on phagocytes play key role in immune response to Mtb, we have evaluated the expression of receptors FcγRI (CD64), FcγRII (CD32), FcγRIII (CD16) and CR1 (CD35), CR3 (CD11b), CR4 (CD11c) and phagocytic activity of CD14+ monocytes in peripheral blood of 20 patients with TB and 20 healthy volunteers using the flow cytometry. Our study revealed significantly increased presence of receptors CD14+CD32+, CD14+CD35+, and CD14+CD11b+ on monocytes in TB patients than in controls. Analysis of phenotypes both FcγR and CR receptors on CD14+ monocytes revealed significantly increased presence of monocytes CD14+CD64-CD11b+ and CD14+CD16-CD11b+ and insignificant CD14+CD32-CD11b+. Phagocytic activity of blood monocytes in TB patients was significantly higher than in healthy individuals. In summary, increased frequency of CD14+ monocytes with FcγRII, CR1, and CR3 may explain increased adherence and phagocytosis of Mtb with following development of TB. Therefore, the receptors FcγRII and CR1, CR3 could be considered as drug target for treatment of TB.
- © 2011 ERS