<i>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</i> –Specific IFN-γ–Producing CD4+ Effector-Memory T Cells Correlate with Pulmonary Disease
Elena Pánisová, Wendy W. J. Unger, Christoph Berger, Patrick M. Meyer Sauteur
Abstract
To the Editor: Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) is a major cause of communityacquired pneumonia (CAP) in children (1).However, the pathogenesis of Mp CAP is not well understood.Lymphocyte responses against Mp have been reported to promote either protection or immunopathology in mice (1, 2).In humans, intradermal injection of Mp antigen elicited a delayed-type hypersensitivity skin reaction in patients with Mp infection (3).The size of the delayed-type hypersensitivity skin induration, which depends mainly on infiltrating CD4 1 T helper 1 (Th1) cells, correlated with the severity of pulmonary infiltrates in those patients (3).These observations suggest that the Mp-specific T-cell response contributes to Mp pulmonary disease.We showed that the measurement of specific IgM antibodysecreting cells (ASCs) in blood discriminated patients with CAP with Mp infection from Mp carriers suffering from CAP caused by other pathogens (4).Using this well-diagnosed cohort, we here investigated the Mp-specific T-cell response and its contribution to pulmonary disease.