IL-32γ promotes the healing of murine cutaneous lesions caused by Leishmania braziliensis infection in contrast to Leishmania amazonensis

Background: interleukin 32 (il-32) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine induced in patients with american tegumentary leishmaniasis (atl) caused by leishmania braziliensis. here,we investigated whether il-32 is also expressed in patient lesions caused by l. amazonensis. in addition,we evaluated experimental l. amazonensis and l. braziliensis infections in c57bl/6 transgenic mice for human il-32γ (il-32γtg) in comparison with wild-type (wt) mice that do not express the il-32 gene. results: human cutaneous lesions caused by l. amazonensis express higher levels of il-32 than healthy control skin. in mice,the presence of il-32γ promoted the control of cutaneous lesions caused by l. braziliensis,but not lesions caused by l. amazonensis in an ear dermis infection model. in addition,il-32γtg mice displayed less tissue parasitism and inflammation in il-32γtg than wt mice during the healing phase of l. braziliensis infection. production of antigen-specific pro-inflammatory cytokines was higher in il-32γtg mice than in wt mice during l. braziliensis infection but not during l. amazonensis infection. conclusions: human cutaneous lesions caused by l. amazonensis express high levels of il-32. in mice,the presence of il-32γ contributes to the lesion healing caused by l. braziliensis but not by l. amazonensis. data suggest that despite the ability for both species to induce il-32 in humans,the connections between this cytokine and other immune players induced by related species of parasites can lead to distinct outcomes of the murine infections. © 2017 the author(s).