Dengue Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dengue Fever, including details on symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, prevention.

Altered T helper 1 reaction but not increase of virus load in patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Chen RF, Liu JW, Yeh WT, Wang L, Chang JC, Yu HR, Cheng JT, Yang KD

Department of Biological Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

To investigate whether dengue-2 patients with and without dengue hemorrhagic fever had different virus load, immune mediators, or T helper (Th) reaction, we simultaneously measured virus load, immune mediators and the Th1/Th2 transcription factors T-bet/GATA-3 mRNA expression in a large outbreak of dengue-2 infections in Southern Taiwan. Results showed that virus load was not significantly different between patients with and without dengue hemorrhagic fever. Patients with dengue fever had higher IFN-gamma levels, but patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever had significantly higher IL-10 levels. Further studies showed that patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever had a significantly lower T-bet than those with dengue fever, but GATA-3 mRNA expression in peripheral blood leukocytes was not significant difference between both groups. In conclusion, altered Th1 reaction as reflected by lower T-bet mRNA expression associated with higher IL-10 levels might be involved in the pathogenesis of dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Published 22 March 2005 in FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol, 44(1): 43-50.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Dengue Fever Research Today. All Rights Reserved.