Immunological Profile of HTLV-1-Infected Patients Associated with Infectious or Autoimmune Dermatological Disorders

In the present study,the frequency,the activation and the cytokine and chemokine profile of htlv-1 carriers with or without dermatological lesions were thoroughly described and compared. the results indicated that htlv-1-infected patients with dermatological lesions have distinct frequency and activation status when compared to asymptomatic carriers. alterations in the cd4+hla-dr+,cd8+ t cell,macrophage-like and nkt subsets as well as in the serum chemokines ccl5,cxcl8,cxcl9 and cxcl10 were observed in the htlv-1-infected group with skin lesions. additionally,htlv-1 carriers with dermatological skin lesions showed more frequently high proviral load as compared to asymptomatic carriers. the elevated proviral load in htlv-1 patients with infectious skin lesions correlated significantly with tnf-α/il-10 ratio,while the same significant correlation was found for the il-12/il-10 ratio and the high proviral load in htlv-1-infected patients with autoimmune skin lesions. all in all,these results suggest a distinct and unique immunological profile in the peripheral blood of htlv-1-infected patients with skin disorders,and the different nature of skin lesion observed in these patients may be an outcome of a distinct unbalance of the systemic inflammatory response upon htlv-1 infection. © 2013 coelho-dos-reis et al.