Whole Blood Assay to Access T Cell-immune Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigens in Healthy Brazilian Individuals

• Published in: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 2004-02, Vol.99 (1), p.53-55
• Main Authors: Antas, Paulo R Z, Cardoso, Fernando L L, Oliveira, Eliane B, Gomes, Patrícia K C, Cunha, Kátia S, Sarno, Euzenir N, Sampaio, Elizabeth P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Antigens, Bacterial - blood; Antigens, Bacterial - immunology; Cell Culture Techniques; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Female; Humans; interferon gamma; Interferon-gamma - biosynthesis; Interferon-gamma - blood; latent TB infection; Male; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - immunology; PARASITOLOGY; PPD; T cell-responses; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; TROPICAL MEDICINE; Tuberculin Test - methods; tuberculosis (TB); tuberculosis (TB) - T cell-responses - whole blood - PPD - latent TB infection - interferon γ; Tuberculosis - immunology; whole blood
• ISSN: 1678-8060; 0074-0276; 0074-0276; 1678-8060
• DOI: 10.1590/S0074-02762004000100009

The production of interferon γ (IFNγ) guarantees effective T cell-mediated immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. In the present study, we simply compare the in vitro immune responses to Mycobacterium antigens in terms of IFNγ production in a total of 10 healthy Brazilian volunteers. Whole blood and mononuclear cells were cultivated in parallel with PPD, Ag85B, and M. bovis hsp65, and five-days supernatants were harvested for cytokine detection by ELISA. The inter-assay result was that the overall profile of agreement in response to antigens was highly correlated (r2 = 0.9266; p = 0.0102). Potential analysis is in current progress to dictate the usefulness of this method to access the immune responses also in tuberculosis patients and its contacts.