Host response to mycobacterial infection in the alcoholic XXXX : male and female dimorphism.

@entity12541 @entity167 @entity11264 @entity35 @entity378 @entity99 @entity1068
Increased susceptibility to @entity378 occurs in the alcoholic. One explanation for the altered susceptibility is a change in T-lymphocyte modulation. To evaluate this, 24 male and 24 female @entity35 were treated with either a Lieber-type liquid @entity1068 diet (LED) or an isocaloric control ( @entity12541 ). After 2 weeks, half the subjects were infected with BCG (10(8) colony-forming units) and sacrificed after 42 days. Splenic helper ( @entity11264 ) and suppressor/cytoxic (CD8) cells were quantitated by flow cytometry. By three-way analysis of variance, splenic cellularity was significantly increased by infection (p < 0.0001) but suppressed by LED (p = 0.0002). There was a marginal sexual difference (p = 0.065) with females exhibiting a 35% lower response while on @entity167 . Examining lymphocyte subsets, the most significant changes were observed after infection (BCG) and @entity167 treatment (LED). @entity11264 levels were diminished by LED (p = 0.0002) but markedly increased by infection (p < 0.0001), producing a highly significant interaction that affected both absolute number (p < 0.0001) and relative percent present (p = 0.0078). CD8 was influenced only by infection (p < 0.0001). This resulted in a infection-related increase in the @entity11264 /CD8 ratio which was lower with LED (p = 0.0032). Splenic T-lymphocytes, predominately @entity11264 , are involved in the host response to BCG @entity99 and are adversely influenced by LED, which may contribute to increased susceptibility.
