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Defective production of interleukin 2 in patients with Chagas' disease. Purified IL-2 augments in vitro response in patients with chagasic cardiomyopathy.

The production of interleukin 2 (IL-2) by peripheral blood mononuclear cells, from patients with different clinical forms of Chagas' disease and healthy controls, was evaluated after stimulation with Trypanosoma cruzi antigen, PPD and PHA. PHA induced higher production of IL-2 in infected patients than healthy controls. No differences were found between infected groups. With PPD the trend was similar, the only difference was that asymptomatic infected patients (INF) showed higher levels of IL-2 production than patients with cardiomyopathy (CDM). With T. cruzi antigen, most patients showed little or no IL-2 production at 24 hr, a peak at 48 hr and an abrupt fall at 72 hr. A similar pattern of IL-2 production was observed in INF and CDM. To evaluate the physiologic relevance of the deficit in IL-2 production, we studied the effect of non-mitogenic concentrations of IL-2 in the proliferative response to specific antigens. The addition of IL-2 only enhanced the proliferative response of CDM patients. These observations suggest that patients suffering Chagas' disease, particularly CDM, have a significant reduction in the capacity to produce IL-2. These findings could be of importance in the pathogenesis of Chagas' disease.