3.3. Stimulation of Immune Cells with T. cruzi Antigens Reveals a Distinct Impact of Alcohol and Infection Combination on Cytokine Production: Selective Enhanced of T CD8+ Lymphocytes Activation and Reduction of Innate Immunity.
The assessment of adaptive immunity cells reveals differential activation profiles in response to combined alcohol and T. cruzi infection. In T CD4+ lymphocytes, elevated levels of IL-4 and IL-10 cytokines were observed in ethanol-pre-exposed and infected withT. cruzi compared to the uninfected group (Figure 4A). However, this percentage of positive cells did not differ when compared to both control groups that did not receive alcohol (NI and CI). In these cells, the inflammatory cytokine, IFN-γ, the elevation observed in the ETOH-I group was also significant compared to the control not infected group.
Consistent with observations in unstimulated cells, B lymphocytes from ethanol-pre-exposed mice, in stimulated culture, exhibited a significant reduction in the proportion of IL-4-positive cells in the context of infection (Figure 4C).
As presented in Figure 5 (A, B, and C), there appears to be a trend towards a decrease in the percentage of positive innate immune cells producing the evaluated cytokine profile in ethanol-pre-exposed T. cruzi -infected mice. Regarding NK cells (Figure 5A), while no significant difference was observed compared to the infected group without alcohol consumption, all cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-γ), showed a reduction in the proportion of positive cells in the context of alcohol and infection.
In macrophages (Figure 5B) this seems to be more evident, with a sudden reduction in related to IL-10 and TNF-α positive cells in ethanol-pre-exposed T. cruzi -infected mice as compared to pre-exposed uninfected group (ETOH-NI) and control uninfected mice to TNF-α cytokine.
The percentage of dendritic cells (Figure 5C) positive to TNF is also significantly reduced in mice infected with T. cruzi ethanol-pre-exposed compared to the control unexposed infected group (CI).