Pathogenesis Of Endemic Burkitt's Lymphoma: The Role Of T-Cell Responses

Abstract

 The mechanisms underlying the deficiency in cellular immunity to eBL and its development have not been conclusively investigated. This study sought to examine T cell phenotypes and responses in eBL. Participants recruited for this study included; 19 healthy controls, 21 eBL patients and 26 malaria patients, PBMCs were isolated from peripheral blood samples collected from participants and combinations of T-cell subset, activation marker (CD25, CD69, CD95, HLA-DR), IFN-γ-, IL-4- or FoxP3-specific monoclonal antibodies conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), phycoerythrin (PE) or PE-Cy5 were used to in surface or intracellular staining of the PBMCs. Intracellular staining was done using FoxP3 staining buffer set. For intracellular staining for cytokines, PBMCs were stimulated with EBNA1 peptide pool and PHA according to the protocol for intracellular cytokine analysis. Cytokine levels in plasma were measured by ELISA. Both absolute numbers and frequency of lymphocytes were significantly lower in malaria patients compared to eBL patients (p