| Research Abstract |
We analyzed frozen brain tissues from three patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and a patient with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) for the presence of IL-6, interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and transforming grwoth factor (TGF) -beta. We detected these cytokines in SSPE brain lesions showing extensive cellular infiltrates, demyelination, and gliosis. Moreover, we also detected IL-6, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and TGF-beta in brain lesions detected JC virus antigens from a patient with PML.These results indicate that IL-6, IL-1beta, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta may be produced in SSPE and PML lesions, and may be involoved in the lesion pathogenesis of SSPE (Nagano I et al : Neurology 1994 ; 44 : 710-715).
We also reported that TNF-alpha-positive cells constituted 1.6-18% and 8.2-23.5% of the total number of cerebrospinal fluid cells from six of 12 patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy and in all samples obtained from inflammatory cases, respectively.
We examined the immunopathology and the expression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) from 16 patients with AIDS and 10 HIV-1-serological controls. Therefore, we concluded that low levels of replication of HIV-1, through cytotoxic T lymphocytes or expression of cytokines, may play a role in the subclinical degeneration of sensory neurons frequently observed in DRGs of AIDS patients.
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