Evaluation of Th1 & Th2 cytokines secreted in the healing & nonhealing cases of Cutaneous leishmaniasis, treated by Glucantime

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is an endemic disease in Iran, the pentavalent antimonials, used for treating this disease; do not show effective enough in the recent years. The cellular immune response caused by T-helper type1 (Th1) cuases protection against leishmaniasis and that of T-helper type2 (Th2) causes the progress of the disease. The aim of this study was evaluating secreted cytokines from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in healing and nonhealing cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis treated by glucantime and control group to find a treatment policy for nonhealing patients. This descriptive study was conducted in 2006 on the subject of 60 cases of individuals, referred to Vila Clinic and Ghaem Hospital of Mashhad. This study was approved by the local committee of Medical Ethics.The cellular immune response in nonhealing and healing cutaneous leishmaniasis and control group evaluated by measuring the cytokine released by PBMCs when stimulated with Leishmania major antigens and mitogen for 48 h by Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA). PBMCs of healing group secreted higher levels of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) than the nonhealing patients (p<0.05), whereas the interleukin 4 (IL-4) levels were higher in the nonhealing group compared to the healing ones (p<0.005). The results demonstrate that secretion of cytokines that activate Th2 response like IL-4 in nonhealing patients was higher than healing cases and secretion of cytokines which activate Th1 response such as IFN-γ in the healing cases was higher than the nonhealing patients.