STUDIES ON THE T-CELL PHENOTYPES IN CHILDREN WITH KALA-AZAR IN FARS PROVINCE, IRAN

The subpopulations of T-Iymphocytes were studied in children with visceral leishmaniasis in the active stage of disease prior to treatment (n=28) and in controls (n=15) using specific monoclonal antibodies (Behring OKT3, OKT4 and OKT8). The percentage of total peripheral blood T-Iymphocytes (CD3+ T-cells) in patients were within the same range as those of normal children (71.09± 1.07 vs68.89± 1.29). The percentage of CD4+ T-Iymphocytes showed a significant increase (P<0.005) in comparison with the control (53.92 ± 1.20 vs 45.59 ± 1.35). A decrease in the percentage of CDS+ T-Iymphocytes (20.81 ± 0.71 vs 23.89 ± 0.72) was observed which was significant at (P<0.025). The ratio of CD4+/CD8+T- lymphocytes was significantly increased at P<0.005 as the value of the ratio was 2.70 ± 0.17 for kalaazar patients and 1.91 ± 0.05 for the controls. The immunosuppression in kala-azar patients studied could be due to dysfunction of antigen specific T-cells and its subsequent effect on various cytokine release rather than changes in the phenotypic characters of these cells.