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T Regulatory Cells and Plasmocytoid Dentritic Cells in Hansen Disease: A New Insight Into Pathogenesis?

Massone, Cesare MD*; Nunzi, Enrico MD; Ribeiro-Rodrigues, Rodrigo PhD; Talhari, Carolina MD§; Talhari, Sinésio MD§; Schettini, Antonio Pedro Mendes MD; Parente, José Napoleão Tavares MD; Brunasso, Alexandra MG MD; Puntoni, Matteo**; Clapasson, Andrea; Noto, Salvatore MD; Cerroni, Lorenzo MD*

American Journal of Dermatopathology: May 2010 - Volume 32 - Issue 3 - pp 251-256
doi: 10.1097/DAD.0b013e3181b7fc56
Original Study

Leprosy is characterized by spectrum of histologically different granulomatous skin lesions that reflects the patient's immune response to Mycobacterium leprae. Presence, frequency, and distribution of both CD4+ CD25+ FoxP3+ T regulatory cells (T-regs) and CD123+ plasmacytoid dendritic cells in leprosy have never been investigated. We performed a retrospective immunohistochemical study on 20 cases of leprosy [tuberculoid tuberculoid (TT): 1 patient; borderline tuberculoid (BT): 3 patients; borderline lepromatous (BL): 5 patients; lepromatous lepromatous (LL): 5 patients; borderline borderline in reversal reaction (BB-RR): 1 patient; BT-RR: 2 patients; and erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL): 3 patients]. FoxP3-positive cells were present in 95% of the cases with an average density of 2.9% of the infiltrate. Their distribution was not related to granulomatous structures or special locations. There was no statistical difference of FoxP3 expression between TT, BT, BL, and LL, whereas a statistical significant increment (P = 0.042) was observed in patients affected by reversal leprosy reactions (BT-RR and BB-RR) compared with patients affected by ENL and patients with nonreactional disease forms (BL, LL, BT, TT). CD123 expression was not observed in any of the biopsy specimens evaluated; with the exception of 2 cases of ENL, in which a focal positivity for CD123 was observed. Our results show that plasmacytoid dendritic cells are not involved in the immune response against M. leprae while T-regs are present in leprosy skin lesions. These data raise the question if T-regs have a pathogenetic role in HD as previously demonstrated in Leishmania major and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

From the *Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; †Unit of Social Dermatology, National Reference Center for Hansen's Disease, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria “San Martino” di Genova and Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; ‡Department of Pathology & Núcleo de Doenças Infecciosas, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, ES, Brazil; §Department of Dermatology, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Amazonas; ¶Foundation Alfredo Da Matta, Manaus, AM, Brazil; ∥Department of Dermatology; and **Department of Oncology, Clinical Sperimentation and Biostatistic, Galliera Hospital, Genoa, Italy.

Funding sources: None.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Reprints: Cesare Massone, MD, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 8, A-8036 Graz, Austria (e-mail: cesare.massone@klinikum-graz.at).

© 2010 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.