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Assessment by Flow Cytometry of Cytokine Production in Malnourished Children

Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, D. F., México,¹ Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México, D. F., México,² Hospital General Gustavo Baz Prada, Servicios de Salud del Estado de México, Estado de México, México,³ Departamento de Inmunología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México, D. F., México,⁴ Hospital Pediátrico Iztapalapa, Servicios de Salud Gobierno del Distrito Federal, México, D. F., México⁵

Received 20 August 2004/ Returned for modification 22 October 2004/ Accepted 21 January 2005

Malnutrition in children is associated with an increased risk of infection and death. Multiple abnormalities in the immune response, including cytokine production, in protein energy-malnourished children have been described and could account for the increased severity and frequency of infections. In this study, we used flow cytometry to investigate the effects of malnutrition on the production of cytokines (interleukin-2 [IL-2], gamma interferon [IFN-], IL-4, and IL-10) in CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cells and the activation capability (as indicated by CD69⁺ and CD25⁺ cells). CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cells from malnourished children showed increased production of IL-4 and IL-10 cytokines and decreased production of IL-2 and IFN- cytokines compared to that in cells from well-nourished, uninfected and well-nourished, infected children. In addition, malnourished children showed impaired activation capability, since the fluorescence intensity of CD69⁺ and CD25⁺ cells was lower than that in cells from well-nourished, uninfected and well-nourished, infected children. These results indicate that malnutrition alters the capacity of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cells to produce IL-2, IFN-, IL-4, and IL-10 in response to stimulus. We concluded that both cytokine production and activation capacity were impaired in malnourished children. This functional impairment may be involved in the failure to develop a specific immune response and the predisposition to infection in these children.

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