Cytokine profile induced by Cryptosporidium antigen in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from immunocompetent and immunosuppressed persons with cryptosporidiosis

The proliferative response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to a crude extract from Cryptosporidium parvum (CCE) was studied in persons who acquired cryptosporidiosis in the same outbreak (15 immunocompetent subjects with prior cryptosporidiosis and 22 human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]-positive persons with various levels of immunosuppression and active cryptosporidiosis) and in individual patients (8 HIV-positive patients with active cryptosporidiosis and 15 HIV-positive persons without history of cryptosporidiosis), PBMC from HIV-positive persons showed less proliferation to CCE and mitogens than did PBMC from immunocompetent subjects with prior cryptosporidiosis, independent of CD4 cell count. In immunocompetent subjects, cytokine gene expression was consistent with cytokine production, whereas in HIV-positive subjects it was not. The production of interferon-gamma in CCE-stimulated PBMC from both immunocompetent and HIV-positive subjects with cryptosporidiosis and the lack of interferon-gamma in CCE-stimulated PBMC from HIV-positive subjects without cryptosporidiosis indicate that C. parvum mainly induces a Th1 response.